


Love Like You

by SmallTownWriter12342



Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Denial Kiss, F/M, Love Letters, Pining, admitting feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:55:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 34,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27359152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmallTownWriter12342/pseuds/SmallTownWriter12342
Summary: Adam was used to pushing her away, but Thea had stuck by his side anyway. This time he may have finally done it, and now is in the danger of losing her forever
Relationships: Female Detective/Adam du Mortain
Comments: 30
Kudos: 49





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, @lividlyinlove on tumblr were talking about whether we put our detectives with other LIs then we had originally put them with, how that all would be. Somewhere, my Felix detective (Thea Holland) got brought into this, and I mentioned just how painful a Adam and Thea route would be. If you aren’t aware of anything about Thea, put quite simply, once she is sure of her feelings, she gives the other person her unconditional, regardless if it means she will be hurt in the end when the others person’s feelings aren’t as deep. So of course, we start talking about whether we would get a denial kiss from Adam, and I brought up how she would be the one who take it the worse. Then she had to mention how she would like to see it, and so I wrote it.  
> And then, I thought of a whole story for it, until it is now 21 parts with a 31k word count.
> 
> This is first part is not very long, since I never expected to add anything to it, but it is the start of something very long. It is already written, so one part will be posted each day. :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy this! It’s a long ride! And thank you to lividlyinlove for reading all of these parts! You’re the best! ❤

Thea was not sure what to do.

Adam was close to her, running his fingers on the outline of her jaw, brushing her hair out of her face. She was not sure what brought this on, but she was scared to move, as if it would scare him away if she did.

Suddenly, he brought her closer, and he kissed her.

She had imagined what this would have been like before, but she never thought it would ever actually happen. The kiss was gentle, and she was almost surprised by how soft his lips were, since nothing else about Adam seemed soft. Thea allowed herself to slowly melt into it, hesitant, as if melting into it would make him push her away, standing on her tiptoes as she did so.

It was everything that she could ever ask for, and she wanted nothing more to have this moment go on forever.

Adam eventually broke it off, and he softly stared into her eyes, his dimples on full display, something that she did not even know he had, his eyes full of such a warmth that she had never quite seen before, and the happy tingles that flew over her body were unparalleled with this moment.

And then she ruined it, like she always did.

This time with one single word.

“Adam”

Thea watched in horror as he let go of her so fast that it was like he had been burned, and he turned his head away from her, his green eyes filling in hardness.

“This was a mistake”, was all that he said.

_No. Please no._

It took all Thea had to keep from crying, and she tried to swallow down the lump that had filled in her throat.

_Why? Please Adam, why?_

“Of course,”, she whispered, her voice breaking at even those simple words, and she turned to leave.

In a sense of panic that Thea had never heard before, Adam quickly said, “Th- Detective, I’m sorry”

She ignored it, and continued to leave, feeling as though she had just given Adam her heart only for him to shatter it in return.

_It’s your fault, there’s something wrong with you. If you were better, you would deserve his love._

_But you are not._


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was still when I was figuring this idea out, so it is also a bit short, but this won’t be the way it is forever haha.
> 
> Series Summary: Adam was used to pushing her away, but Thea had stuck by his side anyway. This time he may have finally done it, and now is in the danger of losing her forever
> 
> Part Summary: The immediate aftermath of what happened.

The next few minutes were a whirlwind.

Thea ran back to her room at the warehouse, the pressure of sob in her chest almost suffocating her, and she slammed the door behind her.

She flopped herself on her bed, and the tears finally broke through, falling thick and fast down her face, and she tried to stay as quiet as possible, knowing about the others enhanced hearing.

_Why Adam? Why?_

She thought that all the times he would say something and then take it back hurt, but this was on an entire new level of hurt.

Thea had been so _happy_. Adam has kissed her, why should she not be? It was something that she had wanted for such a long time.

But she had ruined it. It was her fault that he pushed her away.

_Did it not mean the same to him?_

 _He doesn’t feel the same for you_. _Why did you ever think he did?_

She looked over to the teddy bear that she had won at the carnival, and it cut her like a knife remembering that moment they had spent together.

Thea was going to hide it, do anything to get it out of her sight, but instead she brought it closer to her, as it was a security blanket, and she continued to cry, the tears falling down her checks in thin streams, and she knew that her eyes had to red by now.

A knock on her front door brought her out of her thoughts, and she froze, thinking it was Adam.

_I can’t see him right now. I can’t._

“Thea?”

But the voice was not his, instead Mason’s.

_What is he doing here?_

“Can you open the door?”

_Of course, he heard everything._

In silence, almost against her will, she went to open the door, rubbing her eyes as she walked up to try and get the tears out of her eyes.

“Yes?”, she said to Mason as she opened to door.

He looked back at her in a gentle expression she had never seen before, “Can I talk to you?”

Too drained to say no, as much as she wanted to, she gave him a nod, and she let him in her room.

Mason sat at the armchair at the corner of her room, and she went back to her bed, trying to avoid the steely gaze of his grey eyes.

“What’s wrong?”, he asked.

“You don’t know?”, she answered, assuming that he had heard everything that had happened with Adam.

“I know you’re crying”, he put bluntly, “I’ve never heard you cry before. You cry like someone who is used to hiding it”.

She stared at him in shock, not sure what to say.

“What happened?”, he asked again.

“It’s nothing”, she whispered, “It’s really not that big of a deal-”

“Thea”, Mason firmly, “It is obviously a big deal to you”.

She shook her head, as the memory of the event came into her brain, and she choked out a response, “It’s my fault”.

“I really doubt it is”

Her shoulders slumped, and a lump formed in her throat as she finally said it, “Adam kissed me”

“That can’t be why you’re crying”, Mason said, and she noticed his eyebrows raise in surprise ever so slightly.

“I ruined it”

“Thea, I don’t really see how you could have done so- “

“He said it was a mistake. It had to be something that I did and I- “, she felt herself spill out, before biting her lip to stop herself.

Mason suddenly got up, and he moved to sit next to her, and he put his hand between her shoulder blades, rubbing softly.

“Look, I’m not going to act like I’m the best at this”, he said, “That’s what we keep Nate around for. But if Adam wants to be an ass and push you away after kissing you, then that’s his problem. Not yours. It was nothing that you did”.

Before Thea could protest, Mason interrupted, “This was not your fault, okay?”

She gave a weak nod, not really believing him, but she tried to let his words comfort her anyway.

“I don’t think I can take seeing him right now”.

“Yeah, I understand that”, he said, ‘And you don’t have to”.

“Do Nate and Felix know?”, she asked.

“Honestly, I’m not sure”, Mason shrugged, “But I won’t tell them if you don’t want me to”

“Okay, thank you”

She did her best to give him a smile, even with Adam’s hard green eyes, all that she could see.

“I’ll leave you be”, he said, getting up, “Take as much time as you need”.

He left, and even with talking about it, the feeling as though her porcelain heart had been shattered into a million pieces still persisted.

_I don’t know if this will ever truly heal._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of rambling here because I don't have anywhere else to put this haha  
> Still unsure who to make Thea’s best friend in her route. Mason was not even on my list for that, but then I wrote this, and now I’m even more conflicted haha


	3. Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’m back with Part 3! This is the last of the short ones, and then they start to get quite long after this. Hope you enjoy it! :)
> 
> Been feeling unsure about my writing in general recently, but here we go anyway

Another training dummy hit the ground in splinters.

He had already gone through four already, but nothing he had done had gotten the memory out of his head.

Adam had kissed her.

He was not sure what he was thinking, but as he gently held Thea’s face in her hands, her ocean blue eyes wide and looking at him in such adoration and surprise that he wanted to capture it forever.

Adam had then leaned closer, and had gently kissed her, letting himself forget everything else, everything that he should have done.

It was hesitant at first, but soft, and the pure bliss that he felt was unmatched by anything else he had ever felt before, and he had leaned into it, running his hands through her hair, it filled with more sweetness then he could ever have imagined.

He had gazed at her afterward, her gentle eyes wide, but with the hint of a smile on her lips, and he did not think he had ever seen someone so beautiful before.

But it soon came all crashing back to Earth.

_You can’t do this. Not to her. She deserves more._

Adam had never met someone so kind before, something she was even when others were not to her, and he knew he never deserved that from her.

In his own shock, he said the words that he was not sure if he wanted to take back or not.

“ _This was a mistake”_

He had turned away from her, but he did not miss the way that her face fell in heartbreak, looking even smaller than she already was, and he could hear her heart speed up in panic.

_“Of course,_ ”

Thea had then left, and he tried to say he was sorry for his moment of weakness, but she left anyway, and he almost cried himself at the way she was trying to hold back a sob.

_She’s going to think this was her fault_

Adam came to that realization in sudden horror, and he collapsed on the bench at the weight of it.

_It wasn’t her fault. It never was._

He wanted to see her and try to fix everything, but he knew that the damage had been done. There was nothing that he could do to fix it.

_Why did we have to fall for each other?_

Thea deserved someone who would not be afraid of their own feelings, someone who make her feel _chosen_ for who she was, and could see just how lucky they were to have the sweetest person that he had ever met.

“Adam”, a gentle voice broke through.

He turned to see Nate, looking over the scene in concerned eyes.

“What is going on?”

He felt his chest tighten at the question, and he realized at that moment that he had tears at the edges of his eyes.

“Can you- check on Thea?”

“Why?”, Nate asked, suddenly seeming to understand what this was about.

“Just-please”, Adam said, his voice coming up in an almost beg.

He then added, “Tell her it’s not her fault”

“What happened?”, Nate said, worry for what he was not sure for him or Thea filled his face.

“Please leave it Nate”, he whispered, and to his relief, he nodded.

“Okay”, and he then gave Adam one last look before leaving.

He closed his eyes, but he could still see Thea’s heartbroken ones.

_There’s no going back from this_

_Let her go, she needs someone better. Not a monster like you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to write this at the end(this isn't about this part, this is about Part 2)- I am not the best at writing Mason,(especially as a friend) and I know this. The scene in Part 2 was originally Nate, but I changed it to Mason for a way to challenge myself. If his deception is not good, I am sorry. I have placed this quite a bit in the future, a well way in the best friend routes, so him being more up front was for that reason. It was more of an inference of how the best friend routes will work in the future, so if he seemed out of character at all, I'm sorry


	4. Part 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still kind of short, but it's needed to set some stuff up later! Hope you enjoy! :)
> 
> Played around with the POV with this one!

Nate left the training room, not knowing what to think, and he doubted he ever would.

In all his years of knowing him, he had never seen Adam so _broken_ before, and he had no idea how to take it.

Something had happened between him and Thea, but he was unsure as to exactly what, and not knowing was starting to make him anxious.

“ _Tell her it’s not her fault”_

_Adam, what did you do?_

Nate was not sure whether to be more worried about Thea or Adam, but the first thing he wanted to do was to actually find her, but he had no idea where she might be.

_Where would she go after something like this?_

As open as Thea could be, wearing her heart on her sleeve more often than not, she tended to try and hide just how upset she was, as if she believed that she had to put her best foot forward for everyone else, no matter what she actually felt inside.

And as much as he wished sometimes, she would not do so, he knew that he was really not too different from her in that regard.

But he hoped that this time, she would want to talk about it, instead of trying to deflect it by saying that it really was not that big of a deal when it really was to her.

Every single time that Adam had pushed her away, Nate knew that she took it as fault of her own, something that she would never say aloud, and he had always wondered if he had noticed that she did so.

This time at least, he apparently did.

Adam asking him to check on Thea was a surprise to him, and he went over the conversation in his head, trying to figure out the exact way to put it.

He decided that the best place to start would be her room at the warehouse, knowing that and he was surprised to see Mason leaving it as he walked up.

“Mason”, he said, “Is Thea in her room?”

“She is”, he answered, “But I wouldn’t talk to her right now. Give her some space”

“Do you know what happened?”

“I do”, he muttered, “However, I did promise her I would not tell the rest of the team. Wait a little before asking about it”.

“I just spoke to Adam”, Nate said slowly, unsure on how to exactly say it, and he saw Mason tense at his words.

‘What did he have to say?”

“He asked me to check on her”, he explained, watching Mason’s eyebrows knit at that, “Wouldn’t say why”

“Not surprised at that”, he huffed, with the hint of an eye roll, and for a second, he thought he might say something about what happened, but he bit it down, “He say anything else?”

“He said to tell her it wasn’t her fault”

“Yeah, no shit”, Mason muttered, and Nate raised an eyebrow at that.

“Do you think she’s going to be okay?”, he asked worry filling his voice.

“She’s proven herself again and again”, Mason said firmly, “She’ll be fine. If Adam ruins everything, then that’s his problem. Not hers”.

Mason then left, leaving Nate at Thea’s door, thinking over what he had said, and he debated walking in anyway, but in the end decided to leave it.

But there was one person he had to tell his worries to. The one person who needed to hear what was going on more then anyone.

Thea’s mother.

~~~

While Nate was sure that telling Rebecca was something that he needed to do, he was uncertain about the way to go about it.

Even though he still did not know what happened, he was getting more and more worried for the longer he thought about it.

_Something_ had happened, something that might have just changed everything, and all he wanted was to be able to do anything to try and resolve it.

But as he remembered the absolute shambles Adam was in, he was not sure if there was something that he could do.

And it may not be his problem to fix, but that did not mean he did not have the desire to.

First things first, he had to tell Rebecca.

Nate was not sure as to why she was the person that came to him first as someone to tell, and even though her and Thea were always close, he did know that she had been deeply affected by her absences, and even when Rebecca had taken being an agent over being a mother, she forgave her anyway, their relationship always seeming like a beg not to leave her behind.

He still wanted to ask Thea what had happened, since he knew he was even more unlikely to get an answer out of Adam, and Mason’s response after he told him what he had said made him even more nervous.

Nate knocked on the office door, hoping that Rebecca had not left just yet, and at the first sound of words from behind, he opened the door.

“Nate?”, she asked, “What are you doing here so late?”

“We need to talk about Thea”

“Why?”, she said, the concerned mother that he saw so little of slipping in, “Is everything alright?”.

“I- don’t know”, Nate responded, fumbling over his words, “I think you need to talk to her”.

Rebecca looked at him in a sudden loss of words, wringing her hands together, and then she continued, “This isn’t about her and Adam, is it?”

He shook his head gravely, “Unfortunately, it is”

“Do you know what happened?”

“I don’t”, he said, his voice trailing off, “But from the way Adam was acting, I fear the worst”

“And why do you want me to talk to her?”, she asked, crossing her arms in an almost defensive way, “What could I possibly give that one of you could not do better?

“You’re her mother”, Nate answered, trying his best to convince her, knowing how much Thea needed someone to talk to her, and as much as he knew that him or one of the others could do it, they were not her mother, “Regardless of the past”

“Nate, I can’t”, Rebecca said, “It’s best if you do so. I don’t think either of them want me to get in the middle of this”

“But- “

“Please”, her voice coming out in an almost beg, and he nodded.

“Alright. But please consider it. She needs you right now”

He went to leave, giving her one last look before doing so.

_Adam, what exactly happened tonight?_


	5. Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And we're back with Thea! I hope you guys enjoy! :)

After Mason left, Thea was left alone again.

And she was not sure if she liked it.

With others, at least she could focus on them and try to forget the raw emptiness that was starting to fill her. She had no idea what to even do with it all, and no idea to how it would even look for her moving forward.

_How am I going to take seeing him again?_

_I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to._

She could feel the sting of tears in her eyes at the thought of it, not knowing what she would even do in that moment, realizing that it was going to happen eventually, and she was going to have to face it, whether she liked it or not.

Thea just wanted to get the moment out of her mind, pretend like it never happened, just like Adam would do, and but she knew she could not. There was no way that she would be able to go back to the ways that were before. It was not like he was open before all of this happened, but it was much more preferable to whatever was going on now.

“ _This was a mistake”_

_“This was a mistake.”_

Adam’s words rang in her ears, and she could feel tension build in her throat at the thought of them, and it about enough to get her to start crying again, and she just managed to hold it in, her bottom lip trembling as she did so.

_This was your fault. All your fault._

_You mess up everything._

But even with the ringing, she could hear Mason’s voice at the edge of her mind

_“If Adam wants to be an ass and push you away after kissing you, then that’s his problem. Not yours. It was nothing that you did”._

And even if she did not believe those words, she tried to repeat them anyway, just desperate for any reason to not focus on what happened.

But another knock at her door was just about enough to throw her out of that, and she felt her heart start to pound at the sound of it.

_It can’t be Adam this time, can it?_

“Thea, it’s Nate”.

At that point, she was willing for any distraction at all, even though she knew he would want her to talk about what happened, and she went to open the door.

“Hey”, he said, and even though he smiled warmly at her, worry was evident in his gentle brown eyes. He was carrying two mugs of tea, and he handed one of them to her, “Thought I would get you something”

“Thanks”, she whispered, taking the mug in two hands, not realizing how much it would take of her to talk, as if her tongue was swollen in her mouth.

Nate knit his eyebrows together, and he put his hand on her shoulder, “Are you alright?”

She was not quite sure how to answer that, the pain almost rushing through her again at the question, and with her hesitance, he said, “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to”

“No, it’s okay”, she quickly said, “I probably need to talk about it. That’s what families do, right? They talk to each other”.

Nate gave her a small nod, his face forming a gentle smile, “I’m happy you think of us that way” He then paused before continuing, looking unsure of what to do “You want to go in the main room?”

“It’ll probably be nice for a change of scenery”, Thea mused, trying to bury the sadness that she knew was on her face, and she closed her eyes for a moment in an attempt to do so.

He gently led her out of her room, and they walked together to the social area.

When they got there, Felix was already in there, staring at the fireplace, and he turned as they walked inside the room.

“Hey Thea!”, he said, giving her a bright grin, and she did her best to give him a smile in return.

“Hello”, she said weakly, and his face filled with worry at the sound of it, and she felt her insides clench at the sight of it.

_I really don’t want to make everyone worried on my account._

_It’s not their fault it happened._

He looked at Nate, and then back at Thea, “Is everything okay? Everyone’s been on edge recently”

She flinched at the statement, and she did her best to try and take the moment out of her head, but it insisted on staying there anyway, and Nate gently gripped his hand tighter on her shoulder in response.

Thea then moved to the couch, and Felix moved to sit next to her on one side, and Nate on the other, “Seriously, what happened?”

Nate gave him a disapproving look, but she let herself continue anyway, the words at the tip of her tongue, “I messed up everything”

“I’m sure you didn’t”, Felix muttered, “What could you have possibly messed up?”

She knew that three simple words would sum up everything, and choking back the weight in her throat, she said them breathlessly.

“Adam kissed me”

Thea watched as both Nate and Felix’s faces fell in surprise, Nate trying to hide it slightly, but Felix made no effort to

“He what?”, Felix stammered, his amber eyes growing wide.

“But I ruined it”

“You didn’t”, Nate said firmly, “I’m sure of that”

“He told me it was a mistake”, she explained, desperately trying to hide the choke of emotion in her voice, letting out a shaky breath.

A look of realization that she did not fully understand came other Nate’s face, and Felix looked at her in disbelief.

“He really said that?”

She gave a weak nod, not trusting herself to say much else as the hurt from the incident seemed to pound at the back of her skull.

“That’s- really harsh”, Felix said, fumbling over the word like it was not exactly what he wanted to say.

“I spoke to Adam”, Nate whispered so quietly that she almost missed it, and the mere mention of that was enough for her heart to pound.

“What did he say?”

“He wouldn’t tell me what happened”, Nate said, “But he did tell me to tell you that it was not your fault”

“Yeah, obviously”, Felix scoffed.

“He really said that?”, Thea asked, not sure how to take that information, and part of her wondered if Nate was lying to make her feel better, but she knew that he was not the type to lie, even about this sort of topic.

“He did”, he confirmed, and looked like he wanted to add something else, but ultimately decided against it.

“I don’t know what to do now”, she muttered, talking more to herself then to Nate or Felix.

“And you don’t have to know”, Felix said, giving her a smile, a gentler one then his normal Cheshire-Cat like grin.

She gave him a nod, feeling like she never wanted to see Adam again, but part of her was terrified of that idea.

“I’ll be right back”, Nate suddenly said, leaving his mug on the center table before leaving, his steps hurried as he left.

Thea was about to leave herself, but Felix’s voice interrupted that, “Hey, you can’t leave yet”.

“Why not?”

“I’m not letting you leave until you laugh”, he said, giving her a grin, “I really don’t like seeing you sad”.

While laughing was not anywhere on her mind at the moment, the fact that he was trying to make her feel better meant a lot to her, and supposing that she needed to get her thoughts on absolutely anything else, she decided to stay anyway.

Felix smiled as she settled back down, and he picked up a notebook that was left on the table, and he ripped a page out of it.

“Want to make more paper airplanes?”

“I would”, she said, giving him a smile.

They spent the next few minutes folding the airplanes, and then they started trying to fly them.

“Bet you can’t make yours go full way across the room!”, Felix beamed at her.

“Challenge accepted!”

Thea’s plane went full way across the room before getting stuck between on of the bookshelves at the back at the room, but Felix’s fell short about half-way through

“Oh, dang it!”, he laughed, “You’re just too good at this, Thea”.

His laughter was infectious, and just for a second, the hurt died away, and she laughed herself, a pressure seeming to be lifted off of her chest, “It just takes practice”

He beamed at her, and she realized just how happy she was for the past few hours to be forgotten, just for a second, it almost soothing.

But before either of them could say anything else, she heard the click of high-heels, and turned to see her mother coming up to the both of them.

“Thea, can I speak to you for a moment?”


	6. Part 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we are back to a certain Commanding Agent's POV. Hope you enjoy! :)

Adam slammed the door to his bedroom, and it all took everything he had to not collapse to the floor, his head feeling like it was spinning.

Try as he might, he could not get Thea out of his mind, and knowing that he had hurt her stung like salt in an open wound.

He was not sure how he was going to take seeing her again, and he did not know if he could handle the heartbroken look on her face again.

_Thea, I’m sorry_

The words felt hollow in his head, and nothing had ever felt so shallow and useless in his life, and they did not even start to wrap around all of the regret that he felt.

He should not have kissed her; he knows he should have resisted the temptation. But after holding back for so long, Adam had given in to the swirl of feelings that had threaten to overtake him ever since he met her, and now it had ruined everything.

What hurt even more is how he knew Thea always took all of times that he pushed her away as a fault of her own, when it could be further from the truth. She was better than he ever deserved, and she was just so _good_ , and he was nothing like her.

_She’s a light this world doesn’t deserve._

_And I’m the least deserving of it all._

Adam then realized that because of what happened, he was never going to be able to see that adoring look in her eyes again, that even if it was something that he had always pushed away, chiding himself for his pulse racing at the sight of it, it saddened him that he would likely never see it again.

_I can’t think about that, I can’t._

Almost against his will, he pulled out the picture from the carnival from where he had hidden it, and he gazed at it, as he had done over and over again over the past few months.

He had tried to get rid of it, but he was never was able to, and even though it was always painful to look at it, showing him that there was no doubt in the way that he felt, it hurt even more this time.

Adam remembered the night well, holding Thea close to him, her heartbeat fluttering at the touch, bringing his hand to trace the edge of her jaw, brushing aside the long locks of hair that always ended up in her face.

He had told himself it was just for the mission, and that there was nothing deeper to it.

But he knew that was a lie, even if he did insist on telling to himself over and over again.

And the fact that he likely never going to do so again terrified him.

_It’s what’s best for her, isn’t it?_

But losing her gentle presence was about the worst thing he could think of.

In a way that he barely understood, he had come to rely on it. Thea always was willing to listen him talk about anything, work or otherwise, and even if she saw things vastly differently then he did, seeing the best in people even when they did not deserve so, he had come to the realization that he needed to hear her perspective. There was always that quiet wisdom in it, and always with a gentle smile that never failed to send him in nerves.

He forced the picture out of his hands, going back to hide it, out of some sort of fear that one of the others would find it, and there would no way that he could deny what he felt any longer. And he knew he would look at it again even as many times that he told himself he would not.

Adam knew he had to try and act like everything was fine, as much as he knew he was not, that this raw pain that he felt did not exist, and he did his best to hide the emotions that swelled like a storm inside of him.

He went to leave the room, and he ended up running into Nate.

“I was just coming to find you”, Nate said, and even those his eyes were with their normal openness, there was an almost firmness behind his voice he was not expecting.

“What do you need then?”, he asked, swallowing down everything that he felt, concentrating on keeping a straight face, but he could feel his breath shake anyway

“Thea told me what happened”

Adam knew before he even said it what he was going to say, and he tried hard to swallow the tension in his throat. He felt like he could say nothing in response to that, as much as he wanted to try and shut it down before Nate continued.

“She told me you kissed her”, he said, “And then, you told her it was a mistake afterward”

He weakly nodded, then more bite then he wanted came in his voice, “Stay out of it”

“She’s hurt, extremely so”, Nate went on as if he had said nothing at all, “Why on earth did you do it, only to push it away again? You know better than anyone how much Thea would be affected by it”

“It was a moment of weakness”, he growled, though he felt his voice catch as he said it “And that is all it ever was”

Even though he said those words, the raw emptiness that seemed to claw at him never disappeared, and the memory of the sweetness of the kiss never died.

“Adam, you know I don’t believe that”, Nate said, his voice staying calm, “And if you want to fix this, I believe you can. But the longer you wait, the less likely that she’ll be receptive to it. Don’t push away the one person who never pushed you away”

He no longer trusted himself to say anything that he would not ultimately regret, and Nate gave him one last look before leaving, probably back to Thea.

But before he left, without turning around to look at him, he added, “You know what you need to do”

_Do I Nate? Do I really do?_

Adam felt his shoulders slump, and even though he had already left, he could still hear Nate’s words in his head even as he walked away.

“ _Don’t push away the one person who never pushed you away”_

The statement rung his ears, and even though part of him wanted to find Thea immediately and try his best to apologize, he knew that would never fix anything, even if he could figure out what to say.

_You’ve already broken her heart, what good would it do now?_

_She’ll find someone better. Better than you’ll ever be._

Adam then went walking down the hallway, trying not to feel as though his heart had collapsed in his chest, feeling more distracted then he had ever felt in his life, barely aware of where he was going or where he was headed.

_Please find happiness without me Thea. You deserve that and so much more. Something I know I’ll never be able to give you._

_I’m only going to hurt you in the end._


	7. Part 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Not me forgetting how short this part is haha)
> 
> This part is a bit short, but I hope you enjoy it! We’re getting to the super long ones next time! :)

Thea followed her mother back into the hallway, confused to why she would want to speak to her in the first place.

It was unlike her to come to her first, even now, always making her be the one to come to her rather then the other way around.

_She couldn’t know about Adam, right?_

_Did one of the others tell her?_

_Who would even tell my mother if they knew?_

“I’m putting you on a mission outside of Wayhaven for the next few days”, she stated simply, stopping just in front of her office, her expression as stony as always, always making it hard for her to read.

“Why?”, Thea asked, confused as to where this was coming from. Ever since she had found out about the supernatural, it was uncommon for her to do anything unexpected like this, usually discussing it with her first. She had kept her promise to no longer keep secrets from her, as far as she knew.

“Both Mason and Felix will be joining you”, she continued as if she had said nothing at all, “You won’t be alone on this mission.

“But what about Nate and- “, she started, her voice trailing off as she tried to bury the sudden knot in her throat, and she felt her eyes tear away from her mother’s gaze as she continued, “Adam?”

“The whole team will not be necessary for this mission”, Rebecca said as if she did not notice her hesitation at all, “I would say it might even work better with fewer people”

“Mum, this is all quite sudden”, Thea whispered, not sure what to think about all of this.

“I know it is”, she confirmed, almost seeming to square her shoulders more than she already was, “But it is the course of action that needed to be taken. It was supposed to be filled by another team, but something came up. I’ll handle your absence in Wayhaven, if that’s what you’re worried about”.

“There’s no one else who could do this?”, she prompted.

Her mother shook her head, but she refused to make eye contact with her as she continued, and in any other time, she may have found it odd, “I’m afraid not”.

“I suppose I have no choice in the matter”, Thea sighed, not feeling the greatest about leaving Wayhaven behind, even for just a few days, but she then realized something.

_Maybe getting out of town and away from all of this will be a good thing. Give me a few days to try and forget what happened._

_I can try and figure out what I need to do to move forward._

_Move on._

“When do I need to leave?”, she asked, part of her hoping it would be soon, but part of her almost did not want to leave at all.

“Tonight”, her mother answered, “As soon as you are ready to. You were planning on spending a few nights at the warehouse, correct? Packing should not be an issue”

She nodded, trying to put her mind back on work, anything to get her mind off of tonight, “Do Mason and Felix know?”

“I’m about to brief them, meet me outside of my office when you are ready”

“Sounds good to me”, seeing no reason to fight her on it.

She went back down the hallway to her room, turning on the light as she walked in, and she allowed herself to look over the room she was going to leave behind, and her eyes went to the teddy bear from the carnival at the edge of her bed.

Thea was not quite sure what to do with it, but even with the memories attached to it that sent a wave of pain over her, she put it proudly on the center of her pillows on her bed, not completely sure to why she was doing so, but it felt right. As if by doing so, nothing had happened, and that night at the carnival, even with the way it ended and even though it was not even real, was kept sweet all the same.

Most of her stuff had not been unpacked for the weekend, and so there was little that she had to gather up, just her journal on her desk, but she put it all back in her duffel bag, and then swung it over her shoulder as she got ready to leave, looking over the room one last time before leaving.

_I’m really going to miss this place._

_But it is for the best, isn’t it?_

She was not even sure what this mission was even about, but if it meant that she could try and move past what happened, and maybe be able to get Adam out of her mind, even with part of her sure that would never happen, she was willing to take it. Act like everything was back to normal. That she was part of the team, just like everyone else.

Thea went to leave, turning off the light, but before she closed the door, she saw someone walk up to her.

And those hard-green eyes were all that she needed to know who it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the cliffhanger haha ;) The next part will be out tomorrow though!


	8. Part 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy this part! Sorry about the cliffhanger yesterday! :)

After his conversation with Nate, Adam had gone storming down the hallway, barely thinking about where he was going.

In his distracted state, he hardly noticed that he was heading toward Thea’s room until it was too late.

And she was leaving when he got there.

Her overnight bag was swung over one shoulder, and he stood there frozen, knowing he should walk away, leave this moment for a better time, but something was stopping him.

She then turned to look at him, and he saw her sweet face fall in what he could only describe as heartbreak as she looked at him, her heart starting to race, her beautiful blue eyes going wide at his sudden appearance, and he tried to ignore the slight quiver of her bottom lip.

_Please don’t look at me like that Thea, I don’t think I can take it._

_I’m sorry._

It only served as a reminder what he had done, and he wanted to comfort her, protect her so she would never have to feel this way again, but there was nothing he could do. He had already ruined any chance of that happening. No apology could ever fix it, everything that he felt like he could say just felt shallow and could not properly convey what he really felt.

Thea swallowed hard, and she turned away from him, and went walking down the hallway, and he felt himself try to reach out, hardly aware of what he was doing, wanting to make any effort at all to try and fix what had happened, but as he always did, he brought it back again, his hand feeling numb as he did so.

She turned back to look at him as he drew his hand away, opening her mouth ever so slightly as if she wanted to say something, but she went and left anyway, feeling as though his heart had fallen to his stomach as she walked away.

There were a million things he should have said, should have done, but none of them happened. No matter how hard he tried, he could not talk himself into doing any of them, as much as part of himself begged him to.

_Don’t let yourself lose her like this._

Adam almost outwardly scoffed at the thought.

_I can’t lose what I never had in the first place._  
He was then overcome with a feeling so hard that he leaned his head against the wall to do his best to deal with it, his head feeling it was drowning from the thoughts.

_She doesn’t want anything to do with you now_

_Why would you think anything different in the first place?_

And at that point, he did not care if that what was best for her or not, all he wanted was to turn back time before that moment even happened. This had signal handily ruined everything between them, and as time passed, the more and more that thought terrified him.

_I can’t let her think this was her fault, I can’t_

_I have to talk to her eventually_

_She needs to know that at the very least._

Thea had left the door open, and despite all of his instincts telling him to close it and leave it behind, he looked inside anyway, almost expecting everything in that room to be gone and back to the way it was before the team had given that room to her.

Her room, despite not being what he would ever decorate his own, always had a welcoming feel to it, just like she did, even if he would never admit that aloud. His eyes went to the teddy bear from the carnival on her bed, still sat proudly, even after everything that had happened, and Adam tried to tear his eyes away from it as he could feel his chest tighten.

He then noticed that there was a piece of paper sticking out one of the drawers of her desk, as if it been quickly stuffed in there, and even with everything inside of him telling him to leave it alone, he went to see what it was anyway.

_This is a terrible idea, why are you doing this?_

But even with those words in his head, he looked at it anyway. Adam was not sure why he was doing so, and it was probably nothing anyway, but he felt like he had to.

The piece of paper was folded over once, creased as if it had been done so many times, and he could feel a pit in his stomach form as he opened it and read to the first line.

𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝒜𝒹𝒶𝓂

_Oh God_

He then looked at the date that was written in Thea’s perfect cursive in the top corner of the letter, and he realized that was two weeks ago.

_Before all of this._

_Before everything changed forever._

Adam knew he should have left it alone, knowing this was never something that she intended him to find, and knowing how he would feel if Thea had found one of his own, even though most of those were destroyed, never to see the light of day, but he felt like he couldn’t stop himself, so he continued, his heart starting to pound as he started to read.

𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝓎 𝐼’𝓂 𝓌𝓇𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈, 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒 𝒽𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓉. 𝐼’𝓂 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝑔𝑜𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝓈𝓊𝓅𝓅𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝑜𝓇𝒹𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝓇𝓎 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑔𝓇𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝒻 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝓀 𝓉𝑜 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈.

𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝓇𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒶𝑔𝑒𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝑜 𝓅𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝒾𝓃𝒹, 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒶𝒸𝒸𝑒𝓅𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒹𝑜 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝒶𝓈 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑜𝓃𝑔𝓁𝓎 𝒶𝓈 𝐼 𝒹𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓂𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓅𝓊𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉. 𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉.

𝒲𝒽𝓎 𝒹𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝓇𝒶𝓌 𝓂𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓅𝓊𝓈𝒽 𝓂𝑒 𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃? 𝐸𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒹𝑜 𝓈𝑜 𝒶 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝑒 𝒷𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓀𝓈 𝒶 𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒽𝑜𝓌 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝓅𝒾𝑒𝒸𝑒𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝓎𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓁𝑒𝒻𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓀. 𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃, 𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝐼’𝓁𝓁 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝓎𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓀 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝒹𝒾𝒹𝓃’𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝒹.

𝐼 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝐼 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓈𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝑜 𝒶𝒻𝓇𝒶𝒾𝒹 𝑜𝒻? 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓈 𝐼’𝓁𝓁 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒.

𝒴𝑜𝓊’𝓇𝑒 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒶 𝓂𝑜𝓃𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒜𝒹𝒶𝓂, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊’𝓋𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝑜𝓃𝑒. 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝒽𝓊𝓇𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓉, 𝑜𝓇 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊’𝓇𝑒 𝒶 𝓂𝑜𝓃𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒶𝓃 𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓇𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝒹𝒾𝒻𝒻𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑜𝓃, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓈𝑒, 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝑜𝓉𝓉𝑜𝓂 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝓎 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉, 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓃𝑜𝓉, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓃𝑜 𝓂𝒶𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒹𝑜, 𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒷𝑒𝓁𝒾𝑒𝓋𝑒 𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝓌𝒾𝓈𝑒. 𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝓃 𝒷𝑒𝒽𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒾𝒸𝓎 𝑒𝓍𝓉𝑒𝓇𝒾𝑜𝓇, 𝒶 𝓂𝒶𝓃 𝒻𝓊𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓈𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝓀𝒾𝓃𝒹𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒾𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝒷𝑒𝓎𝑜𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓈𝓊𝓇𝑒.

𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝐼’𝓂 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝑒𝓃𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓅 𝓁𝑜𝓃𝑔𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉. 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊’𝓋𝑒 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓌𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝑜𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝓎 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝒹, 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝒶𝓈 𝓂𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝒶𝓈 𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝓇𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂.

𝐼’𝓂 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓈𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒾𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓁. 𝒟𝒾𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃 𝒾𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝓂𝑒 𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝑜𝓇 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒾𝓉 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒶 𝓈𝓁𝒾𝓅? 𝒟𝒾𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃 𝒾𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝒶𝒾𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹𝓃’𝓉 𝓇𝒾𝓈𝓀 𝓁𝑜𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓂𝑒? 𝒪𝓇 𝒶𝓂 𝐼 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜𝑜 𝒻𝒶𝓇 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝒾𝓉, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼’𝓂 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓈𝑒𝓉𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓂𝓎𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 𝓊𝓅 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒷𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓀 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃?

𝑀𝓎 𝒹𝑒𝒻𝑒𝓃𝓈𝑒𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒹𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝒶𝓇𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓈 𝓂𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝒶𝓈 𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝓇𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝓊𝒾𝓁𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝓊𝓅 𝓉𝑜 𝓀𝑒𝑒𝓅 𝓂𝓎𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝑔𝑒𝓉𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒽𝓊𝓇𝓉, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝒶𝓇𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓅𝓊𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂 𝒹𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝓇𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔.

𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝒜𝒹𝒶𝓂, 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝓊𝓇𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝒹𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝐼’𝓂 𝓈𝑜 𝓈𝒸𝒶𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓉 𝓌𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒶𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑒𝓈. 𝐼 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒. 𝐼𝓉’𝓈 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒, 𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝓌𝓇𝒾𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓉. 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝒹𝑒𝓃𝓎 𝒾𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝓎𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒.

𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝒻𝑒𝓁𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝑜𝓌𝒶𝓇𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒶 𝓁𝑜𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝓅𝓊𝓈𝒽𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎. 𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓃 𝒶 𝒻𝑒𝓌 𝓈𝒾𝓉𝓊𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝐼 𝓂𝒾𝓈𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒’𝓈 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈, 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓈 𝒹𝑒𝑒𝓅 𝒶𝓈 𝓂𝓎 𝑜𝓌𝓃, 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝓊𝓅 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒷𝓇𝑜𝓀𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑒𝓃𝒹. 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓈 𝓂𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝒶𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒽𝓊𝓇𝓉, 𝐼 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝒾𝓉 𝒹𝑒𝑒𝓅𝑒𝓇 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝒻𝑒𝓁𝓉 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝑒𝓁𝓈𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝐼’𝓁𝓁 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒷𝑒 𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓂𝓎 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊.

𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝒜𝒹𝒶𝓂, 𝐼 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓈𝑒, 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒹𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒹𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓁𝑒𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒸𝒶𝓈𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝒻𝒶𝓁𝓁, 𝐼 𝓌𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝒷𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒾𝓉 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊.

𝐼’𝓂 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊’𝓁𝓁 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝑒,

𝒯𝒽𝑒𝒶

Adam’s hands were shaking as he read the letter, and he could feel the sting of tears at the edge of his eyes that he fought to suppress.

He could hardly process what he just read, and he went through it all again, desperately thinking that he had to have imagined it all, right? That he had mistaken what was before him.

But he had not. The letter that Thea had written was before him, the letter that was to him but was never supposed to end up in his hands, but had anyway, and he had no idea what to do with this information.

But three little words stuck at him the most, three words he had not even let himself think she felt toward him.

“ _I love you”_

And it hurt even more for him to see her believe that he did not feel the same way as her, and the fact that she put herself down constantly, well, the stab in the chest from Murphy had hurt less.

Her doubt with what he said hurt as well. Even if he had pushed her away afterward, afraid of what was stirring inside of him, he had meant every single word he said. He had no doubt in that.

_Thea, I love you too_

The realization of that made him grip the letter tighter, and he knew what he had to do, even if it would not fix anything now.

_I have to see her before she leaves, I have to._

_Say something, anything at all._

_Anything would be better then nothing._

Adam almost sprinted out of the bedroom, still holding the letter like his life depended on it, hoping he was not too late.

As he made his way to the front of the warehouse, he managed to bump into Agent Holland, who was walking back from the front door.

Hardly paying attention to it, he asked her, “Do you know where Thea is?”

His mind was in such a frenzy, he did not even notice how he used her name instead of calling her “Detective”, but he could hardly care at the moment.

“She just left”, she replied, her face showing the usual stony professionalism it always did, thought she could not hide the slight confused tone in her voice, “I put on her on a last-minute mission with Felix and Mason. She’ll be back in a few days”.

_A few days?_

“Why wasn’t I notified of this?”, he said, a growl forming in his voice that he tried hard to bite down.

“It was last minute”, Agent Holland repeated, “And you were nowhere to be found”

He could not argue that point, and he stared at the letter in his hands, and he tried to swallow the pain in his throat, “Just-keep me updated, alright?”

“I will”, she confirmed, one of her eyebrows raising slightly, and he marched off, feeling utterly defeated.

_What am I going to do now?_

A part of Adam wanted to find Nate and tell him what happened, hoping that he would know what he should do, but he pushed that away.

_I shouldn’t have this letter in the first place._

All that he could do was wait out the next few days, hope that the current minefield of emotions in his head would calm between now and then, and hope that he would find the right words to say.

_But what even are those?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And also, I do know that the letter may be a little hard to read (I used the font because just using italics was getting confusing) So, would any of you like me to post the letter just by itself, it just normal text? Because I can definitely do that if it makes it easier! :D


	9. Thea's Letter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> I put Thea's letter in a font last time to distinguish it from the rest of the chapter, but here it is in plain text!

Dear Adam,

I don’t know why I’m writing this, to be honest. I’m never going to give this to you, but I suppose this is all that I have in order to try and grapple with all of this if I can’t even feel like I can talk to one of the others about this.

I’ve tried for ages now to put you out of mind, finally accept that you do not feel as strongly as I do you for me, and I have fought to finally put all of that to rest. But I can’t.

Why do you have to draw me in and then push me right back out again? Every time you do so a part of me breaks a little more, and I don’t know how many pieces of myself are left to break. But even then, I know I’ll find apart of myself to break that I didn’t even know I had.

I never thought I would ever ask you this, but what are you so afraid of? I don’t know, and perhaps I’ll never know, but I don’t want you to feel that way anymore.

You’re not a monster Adam, and you’ve never been one. I don’t know who hurt you in the past, or if you think you’re a monster for an entirely different reason, but I promise, from the bottom of my heart, that you are not, and no matter what you do, I will never believe otherwise. I’ve seen the man behind your icy exterior, a man full of such kindness and compassion that it is beyond all measure.

I know I’m not enough for you, and I know that I should stop longing for something that I will never have, but I can’t. I can’t get all the times that you’ve showed the softer part of you out of my head, even as much as I’ve tried to forget them.

I’m not sure what to do with it all. Did you really mean it when you told me I was everything, or was it just a slip? Did you really mean it when you said you couldn’t risk losing me? Or am I just looking too far into it, and I’m just setting myself up for heartbreak again?

My defenses are down around you, and as much as I’ve tried to build them back up to keep myself from getting hurt, but I can’t around you. You pull them down without even trying.

But here it is Adam, something that I have buried down because I’m so scared it won’t mean the same to you, but here goes. I love you. There. It’s out there, I’ve written it. I can’t deny it to myself anymore.

I’ve felt this way toward you for a long time now, but I’ve pushed it all away. I’ve been in a few situations where I misread someone’s feelings, thinking they were as deep as my own, only to end up heartbroken in the end. And as much as all of that hurt, I feel it deeper with you then I’ve felt with anyone else, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get over my feelings for you.

But Adam, I promise, if you ever decide to let your castle fall, I won’t be anywhere but here. You have my word, and you know what it means for me to give you that to you.

I’m yours if you’ll have me,

Thea


	10. Part 9 (Adam's letter)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doing something a little bit different for today's update. This is a letter from Adam to Thea, and has never been sent or read. But, what was the fate of this letter? Where is it now? Was it destroyed, or does he still have it? ;) But anyway, I hope you enjoy this!

~~Thea,~~

~~Detective Holland,~~

Detective Thea Holland,

I can’t figure out what to do with it all anymore.

I shouldn’t feel this way toward you, and I know I shouldn’t. I push it all away, finally listening to the logic inside, and then you give me a sweet smile or just a just a small nod of affirmation, and I forget all that I am supposed to do.

I’m not sure of the purpose of writing this all down It’s not going to do anything, and I know that no matter how hard I try, this is never going away.

Thea, you’re just so _good_., and I am nothing like you. I wish I could be the person that you think I am, but I can’t. What do you see in me? I can’t fathom what that could possibly be. I’m only going to hurt you in the end.

You give me more chances then I deserve. For all the times that I push you away, you’ve never left, and I can never understand why. Don’t you know I’ll just end up doing it again?

You always see the good in people, and I wish just once, you wouldn’t do the same for me. I haven’t done anything to get that treatment for you, and I really deserve it less than anyone else.

I want to let you go, find someone who will be everything that I can’t be to you, make you feel _chosen_ , make you see just how amazing you are, but I can’t.

It’s so awful of me, because I can’t let you in, but I also can’t bear the thought of you being with someone else. What is wrong with me? Why can’t I just be happy for you?

You’ve given me this unconditional love that I don’t deserve, and I wish that I could give that back to you. But I cannot.

Thea, you are a light in this jaded world, and I’m never going to let the darkness swallow that. You see the beauty in this imperfect place, and that part of you is never going to change, and I won’t let it.

I wish I could tell you how much you mean to me. But every time I try, I am reminded of who I am, and I can’t. And even though I know it is what is best for you, it still feels like I’m suffocating.

I should stop this, but I cannot. What I feel for you is a constant ache every single day, and it is an ache that I know will never fade. I knew what you would end up meaning to me the second I caught your eyes in your office, and that has never changed.

I meant it when I told you were everything, more then you could ever know. You are everything, Thea, and please never believe otherwise. You’re everything that I’ll never be, and everything that I don’t deserve.

I’m sorry I can’t be more then myself. But I’m not enough for you, and as hard as it is, I have to accept that.

But my own shortcomings are not your fault, and they never will be

You are worth more than you could ever imagine,

~~Commanding Agent du Mortain~~

~~Commanding Agent Adam du Mortain~~

Adam


	11. Part 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy! ❤

Thea had not spoken a word since climbing into the car.

She still did not know what this mission was even about, but at the moment she could care less, her thoughts only on one person.

_What were you even going to say to him?_

And no matter how many times she repeated that question, she came up with nothing. What was there to say anyway? What happened had happened, and it had ruined everything with one fell swoop.

She had expected to have at least a few days before seeing him again, and having to see him again before she expected to was tearing her up inside.

Adam had tried to reach out, before pulling it back again, and Thea fought hard to ignore the strangled expression on his face, so unlike anything that she had seen from him before. And what struck her was just how similar to what she felt she was wearing on her own.

_He can’t be tortured as I am through all of this, right?_

_Of course not, don’t be ridiculous._

Thea sighed, and she looked out the window, trying to distract herself with the rolling trees outside. She was going to do this mission, and she was not going to let herself let this be all that she was going to be thinking about.

_And if Adam hadn’t decided to show up, I might have succeeded in that._

“Everything good?”, Felix suddenly asked her. Mason was driving, and while Felix had initially called shotgun, he had ultimately decided to sit in the back next to her, something that she was secretly grateful for.

She nodded, trying to plaster a smile on her face, “I’m okay”

He knitted his eyebrows together, “Are you sure? You’ve been really quiet”.

“As well as I can be, I suppose”, she said, “I just want to get to work on this mission”

Thea was sure she just wanted to someone get what had happened out of her brain, no matter what that took.

“Agent Holland didn’t brief you?”, Mason said.

“No”, she admitted, “I have no idea what we are doing”

“Just something with trappers”, Felix shrugged, “Apparently one of them got caught during a fight with Unit Charlie, and now, we have to interrogate them. Then we go from there”

“You’ll be joining me, Thea”, Mason abruptly said.

“Into the interrogation?”, she replied in shock, “Aren’t you the interrogations expert? I don’t see how I would add anything to it. I’m about the least intimidating person in existence”

“Which is why you should”, Felix said, “You and Mason together could get some real good-cop bad-cop action. Besides, I heard you guys did a really good job with Falk”

“That wasn’t an interrogation, that was simply diplomacy”, she countered, but she heard Mason groan.

“You’re with me”, he stated simply, and Thea was too drained from everything else to argue against it.

“Alright”

“You’ll do great”, Felix said, giving her a smile, “Don’t worry about it”

She did her best to return it, and Mason parked the Agency vehicle outside of another Agency facility, and he then turned to Felix

“Go ahead in. We’ll catch up”

He looked like he was going to argue against that, but in the end, he shrugged and headed inside.

“You’re going to enter first”, Mason explained, “Get him comfortable, make him think it’s all going to go in his favor. I’ll join you afterwards, and set the record straight”

“Are you sure this will work?”

“It’s worked before on these trapper types”, he answered, “They are really impartial to exactly what they want to here. Try and offer a deal in exchange for information. That normally works pretty well, at least with what I have found, and there’s no reason why it wouldn’t work again”

“I’ll do my best”, she nodded, already fearing she’ll mess something else up, but she tried to fight down that feeling.

A pair of green eyes seem to emerge at the thought, and she did her best to push them away.

_You can’t mess up everything more then you already have._

“Thea”, Mason said, pulling her out of her thoughts, “What happened after I left?”

She wanted to lie and say it was nothing, but she knew that it was pointless to try and lie to Mason, so she sighed, “I ran into Adam again”.

Mason seemed to tense at her words, “Did he say anything?”

Thea shook her head, “No. But he tried to reach out, and then he pulled it back again, and I didn’t know what to do with that, and I was going to say something but- “

“Stop”, Mason said surprisingly gently, “It’s going to be fine. Nothing that happened is your fault.

He then muttered under his breath, and she wondered if she was supposed to hear it, “I just wish you’d believe that”

“Can we just get on with the mission?”, she asked, swallowing hard in an effort to bury down the sudden feeling of her heart in her stomach.

“We can”, he replied, “Come on”

She followed him inside, trying to quiet the thoughts of the event from coursing through her mind, in an effort to focus on what she needed to do.

Felix perked up as they walked inside, “You guys ready? The guy is in the room over there”

“I am”, she said.

_You aren’t going to mess this up too._

“I’ll join you in a few minutes”, Mason said, handing her a file, “Read this over before going in. Good luck”

She gave him a nod, and she quickly skimmed through the file before walking inside, the man in there moving his head up as she walked inside. Even with being handcuffed to the table, he was incredibly intimidating, intense dark brown eyes that seemed to be watched her every move as she entered the room, old and new scars on every part of his exposed skin. He gave her a sneer as she walked in the room, and she tried to quiet the nerves in her voice as she spoke.

“My name is Detective Thea Holland. I’m here to talk to you”


	12. Part 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy! :)

Adam had thought he felt broken before.

But what he was feeling now was a whole new level of hurt.

He had not been able to let go of the letter since he had found it, and as much as he told himself he would not read it again, he did anyway, almost as a confirmation that what was written was really real.

And now even if he wanted to apologize, he could not. Thea had been put on a last-minute mission, and even though part of him believed that could have not been a coincidence with how soon if happened after their kiss, it was also just as likely that something came up.

He was now staring at his phone, his fingers hovering over the call button, but as much as he tried to talk himself into it, he could not.

_What would I even to say to her?_

There was nothing that could he think to say that would put in words what he felt, and he was not quite sure talking to her in person would do, but he knew that he had to see her again.

_I can’t just read this letter and then leave this alone. I can’t._

He did feel slightly guilty for going in her room that led to him finding in the first place, since it was obviously something that Thea had never intended to share with him, but he could not say he fully regretted doing it.

It did beg the question, however, as what the hell he was going to do with this.

_What do I want to happen? Should I finally give in to what I have been fighting for so long, or try to move on from this, even if I know that will never happen?_

_Maybe giving in is something that I want._

_But is it something I should really go after?_

_Wouldn’t that just hurt her in the end?_

Feeling frustrated with it all, with a clear answer nowhere in sight, and even though he knew that Thea would notice the letter missing at some point, he put the letter by the picture from the carnival, knowing he would be back to look at them both again.

He then heard a knock at the door, and thinking it was Nate, he called out, “What is it?”

The door opened to not Nate, but Agent Holland, and he felt himself tense at her arrival. He desperately did not want her ask about his state after bumping into her in the hallway, not knowing if he would truly be able to answer any of her questions.

“Commanding Agent”

“Agent Holland”, he said back to her, trying to hide all that was threatening to overwhelm him.

“I have received word from another facility that Thea and the others have made it there. When the message was sent, they were about to start an interrogation”

“Why are you telling me this?”, he asked, the words coming out harsher than he meant for them to.

“You asked me to keep you updated”, she said simply, “And I am doing so”

“Thank you”, Adam muttered, hardly paying attention to her.

“You’ve become even more distracted recently, Agent”, Agent Holland suddenly spoke, and he could feel himself tense further then he already was.

“What?”, he stammered out before he could stop himself.

“And I may not know what happened”, she continued, “But from what Nate has told me, it’s something that only you will be able to fix. None of us can do that for you”

With that weird statement, she left the room, and Adam leaned his head in his hands.

_You can’t fix something that’s already been shattered._

But he opened his phone back up, and for a second, he believed that maybe he could, that he could find the write things to say, and he went back to the call button in order to call Thea, and he was about to talk himself into it before shoving the phone back in his pocket.

_Not right now. I can’t do this now._

_I’ll wait until she gets back._

With nothing else he could do, and with no other way to deal with it, he pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, and he started to write.

~~𝒟𝑒𝓉𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝒶 𝐻𝑜𝓁𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒹,~~

𝒯𝒽𝑒𝒶,

𝐼’𝓂 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓈𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝐼’𝓁𝓁 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌.  
𝐼𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝓎 𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓉𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝑒𝓃𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝓉𝑜 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓌𝒶𝓉𝒸𝒽 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑔𝑜 𝒶𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝐼 𝓀𝒾𝓈𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝓈𝒶𝒾𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝐼 𝒹𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒹𝑒𝒹 𝐼 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓂.  
𝑀𝓎 𝒢𝑜𝒹, 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝒶, 𝓌𝒽𝓎? 𝒲𝒽𝓎 𝒹𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝑒? 𝒲𝒽𝓎 𝒹𝑜 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓂𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝒶𝓎? 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓊𝓃𝒹𝑒𝓇𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒹, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝐼 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁.  
𝐸𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓁𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒽𝒶𝓃𝒹𝓈, 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒.  
𝑀𝓎 𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒹𝑒𝑒𝓅𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒾𝓂𝒶𝑔𝒾𝓃𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝒻 𝐼 𝓇𝑒𝓉𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓉 𝒶𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓌𝒶𝓇𝒹, 𝐼 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹 𝐼 𝓈𝒶𝒾𝒹.  
𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝐼’𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝒽𝓊𝓇𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑒𝓃𝒹, 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓊𝓃𝒹𝑒𝓇𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉? 𝐼’𝓂 𝒽𝓊𝓇𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜 𝓉𝑜 𝒻𝒾𝓍 𝒾𝓉.  
𝐼 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹𝓃’𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓈𝒶𝒾𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓀𝒾𝓈𝓈 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒶 𝓂𝒾𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒, 𝐼 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹𝓃’𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒. 𝐵𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓈𝓃’𝓉. 𝐼𝓉 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓈𝒾𝒷𝓁𝓎 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌.  
𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓈𝒽 𝐼 𝒹𝒾𝒹. 𝐼 𝓊𝓃𝒹𝑒𝓇𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓂𝑒 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒶𝓁𝓈𝑜 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉.   
𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃 𝑒𝓃𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽, 𝒷𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝐼 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝑒𝓇𝓋𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓈𝒽 𝐼 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓈𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝓂𝑒. 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒹𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝓂𝑒? 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓌𝒽𝓎 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝐼 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒶𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔?  
𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓀𝑒𝑒𝓅 𝓅𝓊𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑜𝓊𝓉, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝑒𝓁𝓈𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜. 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝐼 𝒹𝑜 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝒶? 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒹𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜?  
𝐼 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝓀 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃, 𝐼 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝑀𝒶𝓎𝒷𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓁𝑒𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉.  
𝐻𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀, 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝓈𝒶𝓎 𝒾𝓃 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓈𝑜𝓃. 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝒶, 𝐼 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜𝑜. 𝑀𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌. 𝐼 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝐼 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓉, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒹𝑜. 𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝒾𝓉 𝓈𝒾𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝐼 𝓂𝑒𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝑒𝑒𝓅 𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝐼 𝒹𝑜 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒.  
𝒫𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑒 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓅𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 𝒹𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓂𝓎 𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈. 𝐼’𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝓁𝒶𝓂𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂.   
𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝒶. 𝐼 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝓈𝒶𝒾𝒹, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒, 𝐼’𝓂 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒾𝓉 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔.   
𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝒻𝒾𝓍 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒽𝑜𝓅𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒽𝑜𝓌 𝓈𝑜𝓇𝓇𝓎 𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒹𝒾𝒹𝓃’𝓉 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝑒𝓇𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈.  
𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃 𝐼 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝑒𝓇𝓋𝑒,  
𝒜𝒹𝒶𝓂

Once he was finished writing it, he had the sudden desire to tear it up and pretend it never happened, but he put it beside the picture from the carnival and Thea’s letter, and Adam left the room.

He had hoped that writing the letter would help him deal with his feelings, but it did not seem to do much, instead just making himself even more frazzled.

_I don’t know what to do anymore. I just don’t know._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I put Adam's second letter in the font again, but I am posting the letter in plain text in the next chapter! :)


	13. Adam's second letter (goes with Part 11)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This letter goes with Part 11, which is in a font, but here is that letter in plain text!

~~Detective Thea Holland,~~

Thea,

I’m not sure what to say to you right now, and I don’t think I’ll ever know.

It was already torture enough to have to watch you go after I kissed you, and I said the words that I should not have, but then I decided I just had to go through your room.

My God, Thea, why? Why do you love me? Why do care about me in this way? I don’t understand, and I don’t think I ever will.

Even though this letter never will make it to your hands, I have to say this somewhere.

My own feelings for you are deeper than you could ever imagine, and even if I retracted it afterward, I meant every word I said.

But I’ll only hurt you in the end, don’t you understand that? I’m hurting you right now, and I don’t know what to do to fix it.

I shouldn’t have said that kiss was a mistake, I shouldn’t have. Because it wasn’t. It meant more to me then you could ever possibly know.

I don’t know what to do, and I wish I did. I understand if you never want anything to do with me again, but I also can’t bear the thought of that.

You are more than enough, better than anything I deserve, and I wish I could see the person that you see in me. What do you see in me? And why can’t I see the same thing?

I don’t want to keep pushing you out, but I don’t know what else to do. What should I do Thea? What do you want me to do?

I need to talk to you again, I need to see you. Maybe that will finally let all of this rest.

Here it is back, what I can’t say in person. Thea, I love you too. More than you can ever know. I know I should not, but I do. I’ve known it since I met you, and I can’t keep acting like I do not anymore.

Please don’t put yourself down for my actions. I’m the only one to blame for them.

You are everything Thea. I meant what I said, and this time, I’m not taking it back. You are everything.

I can’t fix this, but I hope you know just how sorry I am for all of this. You didn’t deserve this.

You are more than I could ever deserve,

Adam


	14. Part 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part Note: This part I am little unsure on, especially characterization wise for one Specialist Agent. I’ve rewritten and taken stuff out a few times, but it still feels kind of off to me. This is the closest I’ve gotten to something that I enjoy, so I hope you enjoy!

“Looks like there giving me the songbird first”, the trapper purred as Thea entered the room, sitting in the chair across from him, and she tried to fight down her nerves, “How are you _liebling?”_

_Just keep calm, make him comfortable. Mason will help with the rest._

“I’m doing good”, she said, giving him a smile, trying to sound as convincing as possible, trying to shed away all that was happening with her personally, since that was not the focus now. She had a job to do. “But I suppose it is really you I should be asking that question”

“ _Liebling_ , I’m stuck in an interrogation room, what do you think?”, he said, his voice getting darker than before, and Thea felt herself swallow hard before continuing.

“I am here to help you with that”, she replied, opening the file in front of her that Mason had given her before continuing, and she scanned her eyes over it again, “So, Miles Klingemann, right?”

“You’re more than willing to call me whatever you like”, he said with a sultry tone in his voice that made her skin crawl.

Doing her best to ignore it, she continued, “You’re here because of your ties to a group of trappers. Now, if you’re willing to talk, you might end up with a lighter sentence”

“Oh, I might, _liebling_?”, he interrupted, “You don’t seem too confident in that”

“Because that’s up to the information you’re willing to provide”, she countered, fighting down the frustration in her voice, “Telling me unimportant details won’t get you anywhere”.

“You drive a hard bargain, songbird”, he said, giving a small laugh that immediately set her on edge, and he did his best to lean on his hands even with the handcuffs, “What is that you want to know?”

“Your file says that you may have information about where some prisoners that your group took”, she answered, reading over the file quickly, “How about we start there?”

“And you thought you’d get an answer?”, he scoffed, flashing her a glare, “I’d rather rot in a cell then tell you. No offense of course to you, _liebling._ You seem lovely.

 _“_ But what do you have to gain from not telling me?”, she asked, “You’re not getting the profit in here”

The trapper gave a deep chuckle, “Oh, thinking that way, aren’t you? I’m impressed. Wouldn’t have expected you to put it together that way. But would you betray your friends for profit? You don’t seem like the type to. Honestly, you seem like the type of person who would care too much about what others think”

_I can’t let him focus this on me, this isn’t about me. Turn it around Thea_

_Don’t let him interrogate you._

“They seemed to leave you behind, and ran for the hills when the Agency got there”, she said, trying her best to give him a smirk, “With friends like that, who needs enemies?”

He threw her a sneer, apparently hitting too close to the mark, “You might want to watch what you what you say, songbird. You don’t know what you are talking about”

“And I’m not going to know, unless you tell me”

“Why do you care so much about this?”, he asked, “What do you have to gain?”

“This isn’t about what I have to gain”, said Thea, “I’m doing my job. You should be more concerned with your own fate then anything to do with me”

“Oh, but you’re just so interesting, _liebling”,_ he purred, “You’re not like any of those other agents”

“I’m offering you to tell me what you know about the prisoners”, she said, trying hard to ignore all of the attempts to try and switch the focus on her, “And anything else about the innerworkings of the trappers that you work with. I’m not taking anything else from you”

“You should consider it”, he chuckled, flashing her a grin, but it was without warmth, “We could have a lot of fun together”

The statement about made her choke, but she did her best to act like it did not bother her, “I’m offering you to tell me what you know if exchange for a lighter sentence. That’s it”.

“Who broke your heart, songbird?”, he suddenly asked, and that about threw her off.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve done a few interrogations of my own, you know. I’ve seen that look before. You’re trying hard to hide it, but the wounds are still fresh. How recent was it?”

Thea gave a shaky breath, not knowing what on earth she could possibly say, gripping the file tighter in her hands.

The trapper gave her a smirk, as if he knew he had her, “Oh dear, you thought you could hide it from me? With your open face, I don’t think you could hide anything if you tried”

_He’s trying to get under your skin._

_And he’s succeeding._

_Don’t let this ruin the interrogation._

Just when she had finally collected herself, trying to ignore the devilish smile that widened even more the longer she took, and as soon as she was about to try and get the subject off herself, the door to the room opened, and Mason came to stand behind her.

“That’s enough”, he growled, and she watched in surprise as the trapper almost seemed to shrink from his presence, but he tried to give a smirk.

“Your knight in shining armor, _liebling_?

“Cut the crap”, Mason spat, “You had your chance to make this easy for you, but you’ve lost that now. You’re going to tell me what you know, or I’ll make you curse the day you were born”

The trapper rolled his eyes at that, “What’s in this for me?”

Mason leaned forward to get into his face, “What do you have?”

“It’s rumored that the prisoners are being kept in an abandoned building in Augusta”, he sighed, “Mind you, I’ve never seen it myself. But it’d be the place that I’d look first”.

“And I’m supposed to take your word for it?”

“It’s all you have, isn’t it Agent?”, he countered, “But, there should be texts on my phone talking about the place and its location, once you crack into it of course”

Mason looked like he was going to ask something else, but he decided against it, “I’ll be back later once I have confirmation of what you’re telling me is true, and you better pray to God that it is”. He turned to Thea, “Come on”

“It’s been nice meeting you _”,_ the trapper said as she left, “Hopefully you recover quickly, _liebling_ ”.

Thea felt like her heart was strangled at the thought of it, and Mason gently moved her forward, and she finally excited the room.

“Mason, I’m sorry”, she said as the door shut behind them, “I shouldn’t had let it affect me- “

“Thea, stop apologizing”, Mason stated firmly, “It was low of him to do. You handled it as best as you could”

“But I shouldn’t have let him affect me like that”, she frowned.

“He was trying to gain the upper hand”, Mason shrugged, “And he was desperate”.

“And he got it”, she said, “What was I supposed to do?”

“You did what you were supposed to do. You kept calm and didn’t make the situation worse. No one could fault you for that”

She gave a weak nod, not fully believing him, and the worries started to fill her head.

_If I had been able to put what happened behind you, would we have gotten more out of him?_

_Probably. It’s your fault for not being able to not think what happened with Adam for five seconds_

Thea shook her head to try and remove the thoughts from her head, and Felix came bounding up to her, and he wrapped her into a hug. She was a bit surprised at it, but she did eventually return it.

“I heard what he said”, he whispered, “I hope you’re okay”

“I will be”, she said, giving him a smile, “It was just a bit unexpected”

Even though she said that, the trapper’s words still rang in her head

_“Hopefully you recover quickly, liebling”_

She shuddered at the thought, but she did her best to put it behind her as Mason came walking up to the two of them, “So, what’s the plan?”

“We wait until we get a confirmation”, he explained, “And then we go check out the place ourselves”

“Sounds good”, she said, giving him a nod, and she pulled her phone out to check her email, since her mother had told her she would send her something in relation to the case soon.

But afterwards, she got the sudden urge to call Adam, and she was not sure why. It was almost like she wanted to tell him what happened, but she was confused as the reason she was feeling this way.

_What would you even say if you did_?

Sighing, she put her phone back in her pocket, and went to follow Felix through the facility.


	15. Part 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doing something in someone else's POV for this one! :)

Rebecca was becoming more and more sure that she mishandled this whole situation.

She knew that she should have listened to Nate and talked to Thea about what happened, but something was stopping her.

Rebecca had never been good at talking her feelings like he was, and she knew that she would need someone who was a better listener then her and be able to empathize more openly then she could.

It was not because she did not love Thea, and even though she had always forgiven her for all of her absences, she knew that her daughter had a major fear of rejection, and while she may have not known what happened between her and Adam, she wanted to help anyway she could.

The only way to do so in her eyes was to get her out of Wayhaven.

In her position, it would be something that she would have wanted to do. And she could only hope that was also what she would want to do as well. There was not much she felt like she could do.

_How would I even start that conversation to begin with?_

While it had been a last-minute mission that needed filling, it was already planned on being filled by another team, but at the opportunity, she put Thea on it, adding Felix and Mason to the mission as well, not wanting to go off alone.

She had lied to her when she told her that there was no one else that could do it, but Rebecca knew that there was no way that she would have agreed to it otherwise. She would not consider herself ready for a mission after everything that had happened.

And while she knew that she knew that Thea would be incredibly hurt when she found out she had lied about it; she was starting to get more and more worried about Adam’s reaction.

Nate had told her that his actions had him fearing the worse of what happened between him and Thea, and after he bumped into her in the hallway, in a sort of panic that she had never seen in him before, asking where she was almost desperately, and she was not sure what to do with it.

But she did know that if he found out that this mission was unnecessary, he would probably be upset with her as well, and she was not quite sure what to do with that information.

_You did the best you could with the cards you were given. No one can fault you for that._

Feeling slightly more confident her decision, despite the fact that she knew she likely should not be, she went back to her office, and noticed that she had a new email, which she proceeded to read.

- _Hey, do you have any agents you can spare right now? I need some help containing a scene._

Knowing that she did, she responded.

- _Yeah, I have two available right now. Is that enough? When do you need them?_

_-By tomorrow, and yeah, two would be great!_

With that, she went to go find Nate to tell him about the news, deciding to tell him over Adam for now.

“Agent Sewell”, she said as she entered the library, to where Nate was reading in one of the corners of the room, “I’m putting you and Adam on a mission”

‘What for?”, he asked.

“Scene management”, she answered, “Shouldn’t take you guys too long. You’ll leave tomorrow”

“Have you told Adam yet?”

“I have not”, she admitted, a small frown forming on her face, “It’s probably best if you do so”

Nate raised an eyebrow, “Why?”

She sighed, but she decided to say something about it anyway, “I ran into Adam in the hallway. He was in more anxious then I’ve ever seen him”

“Anxious?”, he said, seemingly confused by what she could mean.

“He was asking where Thea was”, Rebecca explained, not understanding his confusion, thinking his reaction was what Nate was talking about earlier, “He seemed quite upset”

He gave a nod in response, an almost smile growing on his face, “Alright, I’ll tell him”

Nate almost seemed to leave in a hurry after that, as if he had to speak to him that moment, leaving her confused as what to do.

_For right now, all I can do is to keep my promise to keep him updated. I’ll deal with the fall out of all of this later._

Even though she told herself those words, she did not fully believe them, not thinking she could take the heartbroken look on Thea’s face when she realized she had lied to her about this.

In worry, she decided to call her, and waited for her to pick up.

“Mum?”

“Hey Thea”, she replied, “How’s everything there?”

“Finished an interrogation”, she said, a strange, almost strangled tone in her voice, “Once that information is confirmed, were going to see if there is any truth to it. It shouldn’t take long. We’ll probably leave tomorrow morning”

“Sounds like you’re doing well”, she stated, her voice trailing off at the end of it, “What are your plans until it is confirmed?”

“Well, we are spending the night here”, Thea answered, “Probably rest until it is, and then head out tomorrow”

“Stay safe, alright?”, Rebecca said, trying not to let the worry claw into her voice too much.

“I will be”, she replied, and she allowed herself to smile at that.

“I know you will”

“I’m going to try and get some sleep”, The said, “I’ll call you later if I get any news”

“Sounds good”, she said, “I’ll talk to you then”

Rebecca then hung up the phone, and remembered that she had promised Adam to keep him updated, which she had already done once, but she was sure that he would want her to do again.

But she decided to wait, knowing Nate already went to talk to him.

_You’ve made the correct decision, regardless what either of their reactions are. It’s what best for both of them._


	16. Part 14

Thea had not been able to fall asleep.

She knew that she should, since she needed to get up early tomorrow, but her mind would not quiet for even a few seconds.

_How long is this going to go on?_

_It has to all quiet down, eventually right?_

In an effort to distract herself, she kept rereading the files from the case, hoping that she would eventually find it so boring that it would lull her to sleep, but it had not been any help.

She pulled out her phone, the urge to call Adam was still there, and she was not sure why.

_Why do you want to so bad? What would you even tell him?_

Sighing, she put her phone back down, and she looked around in the small room that they had let her stay the night in, not much more space after the bed and the small desk, and it almost felt suffocating.

With nothing else to do, she pulled out her journal, and she flipped through all of the letters that she had written to Adam over the months that she had known him, and as Thea did, it almost made her want to cry again, but she kept reading through them anyway. It was a collection of everything that she had been going through over the almost year that she had known him, and it was almost strange to read through some of them now, written so much earlier then now, and being able to see just how much had changed was crazy to her.

But she then realized one of them was missing, and panic started to fill her.

_Oh, where is it?_

She flipped through the pages in a frenzy, thinking that she must have missed it, but she could not find it anywhere.

_Did I leave it behind?_

_Oh, I hope no one reads it if they find it. I’ll probably die of embarrassment._

Thea had always let herself be so personal with letters, finding it the best solution to the feelings in her head, and she never intended to share any of them, so she prayed that she had good enough sense to at least try to hide it during her leaving of the room.

_Speaking of writing letters…_

_Maybe writing another one will finally put the urge to call Adam to rest._

With that sorted, she pulled out another page in her journal, and began to write.

𝒜𝒹𝒶𝓂,  
𝐸𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔’𝓈 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝒹 𝒷𝑒𝓉𝓌𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓊𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝒽𝒶𝓈𝓃’𝓉 𝒾𝓉? 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒 𝒽𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓉, 𝐼’𝓂 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓈𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑜 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒾𝓉 𝒶𝓁𝓁.

  
𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃, 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒 𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝓀 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓉. 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓈𝒶𝓎.

  
𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝒶𝓎? 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓂𝒶𝒹𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝒸𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒶𝓂𝑒 𝓈𝑜𝓇𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝒹𝑜 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝓈𝓊𝓅𝓅𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒶𝒸𝒸𝑒𝓅𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉. 𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓌𝒽𝓎 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝐼 𝓁𝑒𝓉 𝒾𝓉 𝑔𝑜?

  
𝐼 𝓀𝑒𝑒𝓅 𝑔𝑜𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝓉𝑜 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝐼 𝓇𝒶𝓃 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓀 𝑜𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒻𝒶𝒸𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒷𝑒𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝓉 𝒻𝑒𝓁𝓉 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝓇𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑜𝓃 𝓂𝓎 𝑜𝓌𝓃. 

  
𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓂𝓎 𝒽𝑜𝓅𝑒𝓈 𝓊𝓅 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃, 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓅𝒽𝓎𝓈𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃. 𝑀𝓎 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝓎 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇𝑒𝒹; 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒾𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝓅𝒾𝑒𝒸𝑒𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝒾𝓉 𝓁𝑒𝒻𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓀.  
𝒜𝒹𝒶𝓂, 𝒶𝓂 𝐼 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝓇𝑜𝓃𝑔, 𝑜𝓇 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝓇𝓊𝓁𝓎 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝒻𝓁𝒾𝒸𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓈 𝐼 𝒶𝓂? 𝐵𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈, 𝓂𝓎 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒𝓃’𝓉 𝒹𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊.

  
𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓊𝓇𝑔𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓇𝑒𝒸𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓁𝓎, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝓎 𝐼 𝒹𝑜. 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝐼 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓈𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊? 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓈𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝑒?  
𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓈𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝒶 𝓂𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓇𝑒𝒸𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓁𝓎; 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝒹𝑜 𝓂𝓎 𝒿𝑜𝒷 𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉. 𝐼 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝓁𝑒𝓉𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝓂𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝓊𝓅 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓇𝑜𝑔𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝐼 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒽𝒾𝒹𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒻𝒾𝒻𝓉𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓂𝒾𝓃𝓊𝓉𝑒𝓈. 𝐼 𝓁𝑒𝓉 𝒶 𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓇 𝓌𝒶𝓁𝓀 𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝓎 𝓈𝒶𝒹𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒻𝓁𝒾𝓅 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓇𝑜𝑔𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑜𝓃 𝓂𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝒻 𝑀𝒶𝓈𝑜𝓃 𝒽𝒶𝒹𝓃’𝓉 𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓅𝓅𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓃, 𝐼 𝒹𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓈𝒶𝒾𝒹 𝑜𝓇 𝒹𝑜𝓃𝑒. 𝐼𝓉 𝒸𝒶𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝓂𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝓁𝑒𝓉𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝑜𝒻𝒻-𝑔𝓊𝒶𝓇𝒹, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒾𝓉 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹𝓃’𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒. 𝐼 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒷𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇.

  
𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝐼’𝓂 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇. 𝐼 𝓇𝓊𝒾𝓃 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝐼 𝓉𝑜𝓊𝒸𝒽.

  
𝐼’𝓂 𝓈𝑜𝓇𝓇𝓎, 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓇𝓊𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔. 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓂𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝓈𝒶𝓎, 𝑒𝓍𝒸𝑒𝓅𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝓈𝑜𝓇𝓇𝓎, 𝒶𝓈 𝓈𝒾𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑜𝓌 𝒶𝓈 𝒾𝓉 𝓈𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹𝓈.

  
𝐼’𝓋𝑒 𝒶𝒹𝓂𝒾𝓉𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒷𝑒𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓈𝑒 𝓁𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓈, 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒢𝑜𝒹, 𝒜𝒹𝒶𝓂, 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝐼 𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒹𝑜. 𝐼𝓉 𝒽𝓊𝓇𝓉𝓈, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃’𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓅 𝒾𝓉. 𝐼𝓉’𝓈 𝒶𝓈 𝐼’𝓂 𝓉𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒷𝓎 𝒶 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑜𝒻 𝒻𝒶𝓉𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒷𝑒𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒, 𝐼 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒷𝑒𝓁𝒾𝑒𝓋𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓃 𝓈𝓊𝒸𝒽 𝒶 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝐼 𝒹𝑜 𝓃𝑜𝓌.

  
𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝓂𝓎 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓈𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝐼 𝓂𝒶𝒹𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒷𝑒𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒹𝓈. 𝐼𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒹𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒹𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓁𝑒𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓌𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓈 𝒻𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑔𝓇𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹, 𝐼’𝓁𝓁 𝒷𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒. 𝐼 𝓌𝑜𝓃’𝓉 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒.

  
𝐼’𝓂 𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊’𝓁𝓁 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝑒,

  
𝒯𝒽𝑒𝒶

She let out a deep breath, and even though the letter was a little short, it did make her feel a little better, and she put it back with the others.

Just before she was finally going to turn the lights off and try again to sleep, Thea heard a knock at the door, and she went to go see who it was.

“Hey Thea”, Felix said, giving her a grin, “Just coming to check on you. Can I come in?”

“Of course,”, she said, doing her best to return his smile, and he followed her in.

“So, how are you doing?”, he asked, “I know that the last day has been a lot, with Adam and the trapper guy”

“I’m- “, she started, not sure what to say, “Doing as well as I can I suppose”

“You’ve taken it way better than I would have”, he said, giving a small laugh, “You’re way tougher than you look”

“I’m not sure if that’s entirely true”, Thea replied, “But thank you”

“Oh, believe me, it definitely is”, Felix winked at her, “And you know, you’ll be able to deal with everything with Adam eventually. Just give it some time. It’ll work out”.

“Yeah, I know”, she sighed, “It’s still so confusing right now”

“I bet”, he said, and then he paused for a second, knitting his eyebrows together, “Can I ask you a kind of weird question?”

“Sure?”, she asked, not sure where he was going with this.

“You remember after Adam got injured by the trappers, and you went into his room afterward?”, Felix said, and she gave a nod, and he continued, “Well, I remember that after you came out of there, you looked absolutely star-struck by something. I wanted to ask you about it, but I never actually did”.

“Well”, Thea shrugged, not really knowing how to put it, “It probably was just a slip on his part, but it was something that he said before passing out”

“And that would be?”

_“Tu omnia”_

Felix choked out a laugh, “You know that I have no idea what that means, right?

She swallowed hard, trying to avoid his eyes, “It’s Latin for “You are everything””

His mouth dropped open in surprise, and he stared at her for a second, “He really said that?”

Thea nodded shakily, “He did”

“So, you’re telling me”, he started, shaking his head in disbelief “That he said something like _that_ , and then still has the audacity to act like he feels nothing for you?”

“I-uh-”, she began.

“Oh my God, I can’t believe him”, Felix laughed, “I mean, I didn’t expect anything different, but wow”

He then turned to look at her, “You know, knowing he said that kind of makes sense with how he was acting around you after the carnival”

“I’m not even sure if he remembers saying it”, she countered.

“No, I’m pretty sure he does”, Felix said, “He just didn’t have to take it back this time”

He then gave her a soft smile, “The both of you will figure it out. But if you’re worried that he doesn’t feel the same for you, don’t be. Because I promise, he definitely does. After this mission, you’ll have the chance to sort it out”

Thea stared at him wide-eyed at his words, but it did make her feel slightly better, so she gave him a smile, feeling more genuine than any other that she given for a while, “Thanks Felix”

“I should let you get some rest”, he shrugged, “I’ll see you tomorrow Thea”

He then left, giving her a bright grin before leaving, and she almost gave a chuckle at the way he stumbled out the room

With Felix’s absence, she turned off the lamp, and flopped down on bed, and tried to fall asleep.

But a pair of icy green eyes was all that she could see, and she tried her best to get them out of her mind.

_Just try to sleep, none of this is going to be resolved tonight_

She then closed her eyes, and desperately tried to quiet her mind enough to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The letter in this part is in plain text in the next chapter! :)


	17. Thea's second letter (goes with Part 14)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is Thea's letter in plain text! I hope you enjoy! :)

Adam,

Everything’s changed between us now, hasn’t it?

And to be honest, I’m not sure what to do with it all.

I want to see you again, to be able to talk to you, but I don’t know where to start. I don’t even know what I what I would say.

What is there to say? You made it clear that you don’t feel the same sort of way that I do for you, and I suppose I have to accept that. But then why can’t I let it go?

I keep going back to when I ran into you in the hallway, and you had this look on your face that I have never seen before, and it felt like the one that I’ve been carrying on my own.

I can’t get my hopes up again, I don’t physically think I can. My heart has already been shattered; I don’t know if there are any pieces of it left to break.

Adam, am I reading you wrong, or are you truly has conflicted with this as I am? Because I don’t know anymore, and even with all of this, my feelings haven’t died for you.

I’ve had this urge to call you recently, but I don’t know why I do. What would I even say to you? What you would you even say to me?

I’ve been such a mess recently; I can’t even do my job right. I completely messed up this interrogation because I could not hide my feelings for fifteen minutes. I let a trapper walk right in to my sadness and flip the interrogation on me, and if Mason hadn’t stepped in, I don’t know what I would have said or done. It caught me completely off-guard, but it shouldn’t have. I should have been better.

But I’m not better. I ruin everything I touch.

I’m sorry, for ruining everything. There is not much more that I can say, except that I am sorry, as silly and shallow as it sounds.

I’ve admitted this before in these letters, that I love you, and God, Adam, even now, I still do. It hurts, but I can’t help it. It’s as I’m tied to you by a string of fate, and before, I would have never believed in such a thing, but I think I do now.

But my promise that I made to you before still stands. If you ever decide to let your walls fall to the ground, I’ll be here. I won’t leave.

I’m _still_ yours if you’ll have me,

Thea


	18. Part 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy! :)

After he hid the letter, Adam went marching off to the training room, not really knowing what else he could do.

He had fully expected to go through the last of the training dummies, intentionally or not, but when he got there, he just collapsed on the bench.  
_Should I get rid of that letter?_

Adam usually made sure to get rid of his letters as soon as they were written by either burning them or tearing them up for the fear of someone finding them, but for this one, it felt almost wrong to do so after finding Thea’s own.

_It’s probably better to keep it for now._

Sighing, he put his head in his hands, trying to calm the nervousness that came from even thinking about seeing her again.

_What are you even going to do once you see her again?_

_What do you want to happen in the first place?_

Luckily, he was not forced to have to think about that for long before Nate walked in the room, but he noticed that there was a different air around him then earlier, still filled with worry, but also confusion.

He moved to sit next to him, almost hesitantly, as if was expecting him to move away, but Adam was feeling far too drained to do so, even if he wanted to.

“Agent Holland is putting us on a mission”, he said, turning to look at Adam.

“What for?”

“Scene management”, he replied, “Shouldn’t take long. We won’t be far away”

“Alright”, Adam nodded, and Nate moved to a hand on his shoulder, and while he tensed at the touch, he did not pull away.

_At least I can focus on something else._

‘We’ll probably leave soon”, he continued, looking back at him, “Will you be ready?”

“Of course,”, he scoffed, moving away from his touch, “Why would I not be?”

“Agent Holland said you seemed anxious”, Nate said, “Said you were asking where Thea was. What happened after I left?”

“Nothing did”, he replied, shaking his head in an effort to get the memory of running into Thea in the hallway out of his head.

“Did you decide you wanted to try and fix things then?”, Nate asked, a hopeful look entering his brown eyes, looking like he did not fully believe him about nothing happening, but decided not to push it.

“Nate, I can’t fix it”, Adam said, “The damage has already been done”.

“I wouldn’t say that”, Nate countered, “But you have to decide if you want to”

_Of course, I want to._

_But I don’t know how._

“Then what to do I do then?”

His question rung out in the room for a few minutes, the weight of it enough, and Adam saw him give an uncertain sigh.

“What do you want to happen?”

He wanted to answer that question, figure out exactly what he was going to do after all of this, but nothing that he thought of seemed to fully encapsulate all that he wanted to do. Every apology that he thought of seemed shallow, and that left the one thing that was burning in this mind.

_I don’t want to lose her._

Nate seemed to realize that he was going to get nothing else out of him, so he sighed and got up, “You want to go ahead and go?”

“That would be nice”, he muttered hoping that he could at least fill in the time before Thea came back.

_And figure out what I should do._

But he kept going back to one thing, one thing that he was becoming more and more that it was something that he wanted, after denying it to himself for so long, as it keeping it buried would have made it disappear instead of making it worse.

_I’ve lost all will to fight this anymore._

Now, what to do with that was still a mystery, but he was sure about that, even if Adam knew he should not be.

He followed Nate out of the training room, and he tried to ignore the feeling of what felt like his heart in his stomach, a feeling that had not gone away since finding her letter.

~~~

The scene was not too far out of the way of Wayhaven, it only taking them about 45 minutes to get there, and Adam did his best to calm the storm raging inside of him as he went to go talk to the handler who had asked for extra help, Nate close behind him.

“Commanding Agent du Mortian”, they said as he walked closer, holding out their hand to shake it, which Nate accepted immediately, but he hesitated before doing so, “And Agent Sewell, thank you so much for coming out on such a short notice”.

“Of course,”, Nate said, giving them smile, “What do you need us to do?”

“Make sure that there are no leaks”, they explained, pushing a pen behind their ear, “We had an issue with a supernatural trying to reveal themselves to a few people, and well, it’s been a mess ever since. The last humans are currently in that building over there. Just make sure that all of the memory wipes actually worked”

“Sounds good”, Nate said, and they both started to walk away when the handler called out after them.

“Wait, make sure both of you silence your phones before going in”.

Adam finally spoke for the first time, “Why?”

They shrugged, “I was told it was causing some issues with being a distraction, but that’s just what I’ve heard secondhanded”

Nate got out his own phone and started trying to mess with it, before giving it to him.

“It’s probably best if you did it for me”, he chuckled.

He did so, and he handed it back to Nate, and he went to silence his own.

But he was not expecting the sudden hesitation to do so, and it confused him.

_Why am I hesitant about this? It’s not going to be for long._

Sighing, he put his phone on silent before shoving it back in his pocket, and he followed Nate into the main facility.


	19. Part 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry this is late! Time got away from me a little bit, and I forgot how these longer later parts needed revisions. This is also where I get more and more unsure about the story, but hopefully it comes across okay! Hope you enjoy! :)
> 
> Also- there is something that is mentioned here that has only mentioned on Sera’s Patreon. I won’t say what it is because of spoilers, but I’ll tell the title of it at the end of this if you are interested in what it is!

It did not take long for the three of them to arrive at the abandoned building the next morning, the information coming back as confirmed, and they all climbed out of the car once they got there.

Thea yawned, but she tried to stifle it. Even as much as she begged herself to, she had not slept well last night at all, and it seemed like the moment that she fell asleep her alarm went off.

She looked to the building, taking in the sight of it. It was larger than she expected it to be, at least three stories tall, all made of brick, with long rows of windows on each level. There was not a single window without some broken glass, and some of the windows were missing altogether. Long vines were starting to snake up the walls, and the grasses around the building were about waist high for Thea, not having been cut in what looked like years.

Smoothing down her sweater and jeans, which she had decided to wear instead of her normal dress and cardigan, she looked to the others, raising her eyebrows slightly as if permission to speak.

“Is this the place?”, Felix asked, looking to Mason.

“This is the address that was in that trapper’s phone”, he replied, lighting a cigarette, and he blew out a puff of smoke before continuing, “And if it is the place, that’s for us to decide”

“I really don’t have a good feeling about this”, Thea said, looking over the building uneasily.

“Yeah, I don’t either”, Felix agreed, and then he looked back at Mason, “Any idea how we should go about this?”

“We check out each floor”, Mason stated as if it was obvious, “We see if there is anything here, and if there is, we take care of it. If there isn’t, then we were just lied to and I am looking forward to smashing that trapper’s teeth in”.

“I don’t think the Agency would let you do that”, Thea said, trying to hold back a laugh.

“Probably not”, he shrugged, “But I’d do it anyway”

Felix gave a bright laugh at that, and Thea could not help but smile.

“Then let’s get on with it”, she said.

“I got no objections to that”, Felix added.

The three of them then walked up to the front of the building, and she checked her gun and her volt at her belt before following Felix and Mason inside.

“This is some place”, she heard Felix whisper as he looked around the inside of the building.

The inside of it was just as run down as the front, the vines starting to grow even inside as well. The tile of the floor was torn up, showing the plain concrete underneath them. Broken glass was scattered all over the floor, and Thea was thankful that she did not wear her normal sandals on this mission. Some of the walls had massive holes in them, despite being made of concrete, and she wondered how on earth this building was left standing.

_And why the trappers would choose here of all places._

“It’s definitely something”, she replied, and then she looked to Mason, “Let’s start from the beginning, and work our way through it, shall we?

He nodded in response, and she added, “I think it’s best if we stick together”

“Yeah, I’m all for that”, Felix said, a surprising amount of hesitation in his voice.

They moved through the first floor in silence, looking into all of what could be called rooms that still remained, but there was evidence that anyone had been here for a long time.

“We’re getting nowhere”, Thea heard Mason growl.

“And we still got two floors to check”, she said, “Don’t lose hope yet”

“Always a shining light, your optimism”, Felix laughed, and she was not sure if he was making fun of her or not.

“I’m going to take that as a compliment”, she answered to that, giving him a smile, and he threw her a wink.

“You should”

“Can you two be quiet for five seconds?”, Mason muttered, the words making her tense slightly, “Someone’s here”

“Are you sure?”, she whispered.

“Not entirely”, he replied, “But we need to check the other floors”

Thea nodded, and she followed him to a precarious looking staircase that ran up to the second floor. It was made of oak wood, and time had not been kind to it.

“Be careful”, Felix said uneasily, and she was not uncertain if he was saying that for her and Mason or for himself.

The wood on the staircase almost seemed to bend as she walked up it, and it was miracle that it did not break under the weight of the three of them.

The second floor was somehow emptier than the first, not much more there besides beer cans and moldy blankets, and there was not much else there. It did look like things had been there at some point, but had been moved away, and it was hard to tell just how long whatever was there had been moved.

But something was causing her to shiver, and she did not think it was the cold draft that blew in from the broken windows.

_Mason may be right, there may be someone here._

_It’s not like we were expecting this place to be empty._

Without saying much, they all then went up to the third floor, this staircase made of concrete and sturdier than the other one, and even though she knew what they were looking for, it still surprised her to actually find it.

In a row of cages in the first the top rooms, in a room that looked like it had been completely redone, opposite of the rest of the building with its pure white walls, almost sterile envirmoment, there was a dryad women, a supernatural race that she had only read about and never actually seen, her green skin almost white from how pale it was, the leaves in here hair more of a sickly yellow then their normal green, and at the moment that she saw them, she started speaking Greek in a panicked voice.

“We’re here to help”, Thea said, doing her best to answer back in Greek, and even though she knew a variety of languages, Greek was one that she was not one she was overly confident in.

“What do we do now?”, she heard Felix whisper, looking to the two of them for an answer.

“First things first”, she began, “We get this lock off, and then we go from there”

The two of them nodded at her, and she knelt down to look at the lock, but as she knelt down, she heard Mason and Felix spin around, and she looked to see a small group of trappers at the door.

“We have you surrounded”, the one in the front said, a dark grin forming on their face, “You might as well give up”

And with no time for any of them to say anything, a thick fog filled the room, and it did not take her long to realize what it was.

_DMB_

And even though it had no effect on her like it did Felix and Mason, it still made her cough, and she tried her best to fight through it all to get to the others.

But she was unsuccessful.

Everything seemed to happen in a blur, and later, when she thought of that moment, it was hard for her to say what exactly happened.

One of the trappers took her out fairly easily, taking her gun and volt pretty easily, and as much as she tried to fight back as she watched the trappers tie rope around both Mason and Felix’s wrists, and by the way they glowed red, she was sure she knew what was in them. They looked like the same ones that her mother had told her about a few months ago, the time that she had to save the team herself, but she did not think she would ever see them herself.

“Felix!”, she called out helplessly, “Mason!”

Two of the trappers dragged them both out of the room, both of them still fighting, albeit much weaker, and she knew one of them said something, but was she was hardly paying attention as the trapper that was holding on to her threw her to the ground.

“We’ll be back for you later, _Detective_ ”, they snarled, and he followed the rest of them out, closing the door behind them, and she could hear the click of an outside lock.

Thea took a shuddering breath. It all had happened so fast, trying to think of other ways that it could have not ended the way it did, and she resisted the urge to cry, thinking that she had cried enough over the past few days.

_What am I going to do now?_

She felt around in her pockets, in an almost desperate measure, and realized that the trapper had not taken her phone, and she breathed out a sigh of relief, and she looked to the dryad.

“I can call for help”, she said in was probably broken Greek, but that was hardly what she was worried about at the moment.

But that left the decision on who to call.

_Call him Thea. He’ll understand. This is hardly a normal circumstance._

Before she could talk herself out of it, her hands shaking as she did so, she went to Adam in her contacts and pressed the call button.

It seemed like forever as she waited for him to pick up.

_Please Adam, please._

Instead of him answering, she got his voicemail, and she felt her heart break even more at the sound of it.

“Commanding Agent du Mortain. Please leave a message”

She tried to hold back a sob, and she did not really want to leave a message, but she did anyway.

“Hey, it’s Thea”, she said, trying to keep her voice from shaking, “The three of us ran into some massive trouble and we need help. I don’t know where Felix and Mason are. Please, if you get this, call me. Please”

She stopped the message after that, and she was able to try calling her mother or Nate when the door opened again.

A trapper, the one from the front from earlier, and she noticed that he looked a lot like the one during the interrogation, stalked up to her and ripped her phone out of her hands.

“I thought they didn’t think to take that from you”, he said, giving her a devilish grin, “Good thing that I checked back”

“What do you want?”, she stuttered out, not wanting to look him in the eyes, as if he would be able to see just how scared she was if she did.

“You Agency types know what we want”, he laughed, “Don’t play dumb with me now. But shame it had to be this way”

He left the room after that, and she felt her almost collapse to the floor as the heard a lock click behind him.

The dryad woman said something to her, but she was hardly paying attention to it, feeling at a lost at what to do, and the fact that Adam did not even answer his phone was hitting her harder than she expected, but she tried to push that away. It was hardly the most important thing right now.

She took a deep breath and looked around the room, trying to focus on anything else, scanning her eyes around the room to see if there was absolutely anything that would help open the cage, and then to open the door.

_I can’t lose hope. Not just yet._

_There is still time to fix this._

An image of Adam went through her mind, and almost to her surprise, it strengthened her resolve.

_I have to get of here. I have to see him again._

_It’s not going to end this way._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And also, what I mention that is from Patreon is from 2019′s March Monthy Bonus Content! 
> 
> And I don’t say this enough, but thank you guys so much for all the support for this series and all of my other writing. All of you guys are amazing, and I appreciate you so so much! :D


	20. Part 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy! :)

Thea looked back at the dryad, a new hope filling her.

_I’ll be able to figure this out. Just take a deep breath and go through it slowly. It’s not like you’re going anywhere anyway._

_You’re already in a better situation then you were with Murphy, at least._

“Do you know what they keep in here?”, she asked, doing her best to keep her Greek as accurate as she could make it, doing all she could to keep her voice level.

“Tools”, she answered simply.

“Do you know where they kept them?”

The dryad pointed to the shelves in the back of the room, most of them now empty, but there were some things still there.

_Screwdrivers, Rulers, paint, nothing that I can use._

_How am I going to get the lock off?_

Thea sighed, already feeling a little defeated, but as she ran her hands through her hair, she felt them touch the bobby pins that kept the lock of hair on the right side of her head out of her face.

_It’s been ages since I’ve done this, but I might as well give it a shot._

_I don’t have many other ideas._

She had a friend back in high school who had a knack for picking locks, and he had always been willing to show her just how it was done in about every single way. She had lost track on how many of her bobby pins that he had ruined, but he had always been willing to teach her, and she hoped that she had not completely forgotten how to do it.

Thea knelt next to the lock, pulling the bobby pins out of her hair, and she bent one of them at a 90-degree angle and the other with a small loop at the end. She inserted the bent end to the lock to hold the keyhole open, and then turned it as far as it would go. Taking the other bobby pin, she stuck it inside the keyhole, and started trying to fiddle with it to reach the far back of the lock.

_Come on please work, it has to._

After fiddling with it for a few minutes, she heard a loud click, and the padlock popped off, falling to the ground, and she have a large sigh of relief.

“Oh, thank God”, she muttered, and the dryad opened the cage door and walked out herself, giving Thea a gentle smile.

“Thank you”, she whispered, and she gave her a smile.

“Of course,”

She then looked around the rest of the room, and even though the first part of it all was done, it was nowhere near the end of it all.

_Next step is going to be finding Felix and Mason, but I’m not sure where they are in the first place._

Thea took another look around the room to see if there was anything she missed, and found that the window was unlocked, but without a ladder, it would mean falling three stories to the ground, and she would really like to avoid doing that.

_Most doors to places like this wouldn’t lock from the outside anyway, so there has to be a new lock on the outside of this door._

_At least, I think so. I’m not quite sure what this place was before._

She went to try the door anyway, and to her surprise, the door swung open before stopping, a chain lock all that was on the outside door.

_I guess if you are already keeping them in cages you don’t need a better lock._

Thea tried to stick her hand outside the door in order to slide the chain lock out, but her hand just fell short of being able to grab it.

“Miss”, said a sudden voice, and she turned to see the dryad, who had one of the smaller screwdrivers in her hand, “Try this”.

She gave her a nod of thanks, and with the extra length, she was able to grab the lock and pull it towards her, and the door swung open.

_Okay, you’re out. What’s next?_

“I’m not going straight out”, Thea said, turning to the dryad, “I got to find my friends. You’re more than willing to stick with me, or try to get out of here yourself”

“I’ll stay”

“Okay”, she replied, “But just know, I am unarmed and if we get into a fight, combat is not my specialty”

_And I also the fact that I ruin everything._

“Safer with you”, she stated simply, and Thea nodded, her mind back to finding Felix and Mason.

_I don’t even know where to start._

One question went through her head, and she was surprised at herself for thinking it.

_What would Adam do?_

She almost outwardly scoffed at that.

_Adam wouldn’t even get himself into this situation in the first place._

_But what would he do if he did?_

Thea knew that he would likely take this as tactically as possible, carefully calculating each outcome in his head, and even though she was nowhere near as good at it as he was, it got her thinking.

_It’s unlikely that the others are on the lower two levels with how empty it was, and we never did get to fully go through everything on the third._

“We’ll have to be quiet”, she said, turning around to face the dryad, “Stay close to me”

_Just keep going through the few rooms that still remain up here_

She finally opened the door, and the two of the them walked into the hallway, and Thea pulled the chain lock back in place.

It was eerily quiet, and Thea swallowed hard to try and calm the tension that was threatening to make her seize up in panic.

She moved through the hallway, doing her best to listen for any noise, but it was like everyone had left, but she doubted that was the case.

“I’m only going to give you one chance to answer this, vampire”

The voice had come out like a knife to the quietness of everything else, and she immediately moved down closer to the ground, the dryad moving along with her.

“You’re acting like this is our fault”, she heard Felix’s voice say, and she breathed out a breath of relief at the sound of it, “Who Thea managed to call because you forgot to take her phone seems like a you problem”

The voice growled, and she recognized it as the trapper that had come back to the room after the others had left. She tried to figure out where exactly the voice was coming from, and then realized it was from the last room on the far left when the voice spoke again.

“Just so you know”, he seethed, “It was hardly my fault that the phone was left with her”

“Just a problem with your leadership skills than?”, Mason said, with a surprising amount of snark, and from the shuffle of movement that she heard probably happened when the trapper had moved closer to them.

“Do you really think this is funny?”

“I mean, it kinda is”, Felix said, “You’ve really haven’t even told us what happened for you to get so worked up over this”

“Then let me rephrase it”, the trapper countered, “Does the name Adam mean anything to either to any of you?”

_How would the trapper know about Adam in the first place?_

“Oh, if you only knew”, Felix laughed, “If Thea managed to call _him_ , then you are in so much trouble”

She looked down at her feet, not really sure what to do, knowing she could not stay here eavesdropping forever, but she felt frozen to her spot.

“Your Agents”, he went on, “I’m guessing that was your Commanding Agent then? Didn’t realize that he and the detective were on a first name basis”

“We’re a team”, Felix said flatly.

The trapper gave a laugh, but it was without mirth, “He tried calling her back. Got to lay down a couple of facts right then and there. He wasn’t very happy about it. Seemed quite personally affected actually”

_Wait, Adam tried to call me back?_

Thea knew it was not the place to be thinking about this, it surprisingly meant much to her anyway.

_At least I know he’s not completely trying to avoid me._

“He’s not someone to mess with”, Mason said, a tone of warning filling his voice, “He’ll be here, and the rest of the Agency as well”

“And by the time your friend gets here, we’ll be long gone”, the trapper said, and she practically hear the smirk in his words.

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch”, Felix laughed, but it sounded like a masking one, “A lot can go wrong”

“I’ll take my chances”, he replied, “You’ve lost this one”

Thea watched as he stormed from the room, and she tensed, thinking he would see her, but he marched the opposite way from her and the dryad that was with her, and at the first chance that she could see, they both rushed in there.

“Thea!”, Felix whispered excitedly as he saw her come in. The two of them, besides being handcuffed behind their backs to one of the cages, looking no worse for wear, and she breathed out a sigh of relief at the sight of it, “How did you escape?”

Mason shrugged, “After she managed to escape Murphy, I’m hardly surprised”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot”, he replied, giving her a grin, “You’re a real expert at escaping now, uh?”

She laughed, and the banter of it all immeaditly made her feel better, almost making everything seem more normal for a minute.

“You guys got a plan?”

“I don’t think I’m the best at those”, Felix said, “But I’d like these off”

Thea knelt down, and she untied the ropes on his wrists, the knots taking a bit to fully undo, but the eventually did come down, and she threw them back to the ground.

“If there wasn’t any DMB, these wouldn’t have been an issue”, Felix muttered, rubbing his wrists, and he got up off the ground.

Thea did Mason’s, and she then turned to him for what to do next.

“There are other prisoners here”, he said, “We need to get them out to”. He then looked to the dryad behind her, “You take her, and you get out of here”

“I’m not leaving you guys behind”, she stated firmly, a foreboding feeling already filling her stomach.

“And you’re not”, he replied, “But you need to get out of here. The rest of the Agency should be here soon, thanks to that call you made”

“I really don’t like this”, she said, shaking her head, “There is about a million ways that this can go wrong”

“It’ll go okay”, Felix said, and even though he was giving her a smile, it was almost a worried one.

Thea turned back to the dryad, and as much as she did still not like this, getting at least one of them out of here was still better than nothing.

“Alright”, she sighed, despite still thinking this was a terrible idea “You guys stay safe, alright?”

Felix gave her a wink, “We always are”

With one last smile of goodbye, she left the room, the dryad following her out.

Once they were back in the hallway, she quickened her steps, wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible, and she about ran down the third-floor steps to the second level.

But someone was waiting for her there.

“Oh, hello detective”, he grinned, his white teeth shining brightly from his tan skin in almost a wolfish way, “Going somewhere?”

She froze, not knowing what to do, and she looked back at the dryad behind her, who, even though she was good few inches taller than her, almost seemed to shrink behind her from his presence.

“Nothing to say?”, he scoffed, “Cat got your tongue?”

“What do you want me to say?”, she asked, trying to keep her voice steady, and she turned to look at the dryad, and gave her a nod of her head as she tried to get the message across.

_Run when you get the opening._

She seemed to understand, and as the trapper opened his mouth to answer her question, moving closer to her, she bolted off, running down the staircase and it was a few moments before she heard the slam of the front door.

Thea had expected him to grab at her, and she was fully ready to lunge at him when he did, but he stayed still, instead watching her with interested eyes.

“Intriguing decision Detective”, he said, “And I must say, you are quite impressive. I should have secured you better. Did not guess you would try to escape. You seemed like the type would just wallow until someone saved you”.

_Do I really seem like the type to?_

_I don’t really know._

“You let her go in front of you”, he continued, “Why?”

“It was the right thing to do”, she said resolutely, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“And unfortunately, that right decision won’t save you or your friends”, the trapper replied, a laugh in his words, “But you have caused more trouble than all of this is worth. Of course, the Agency finding out about this place was always a sign that we would eventually have to leave it, but it looks like we’re going to have to cut our losses and end this now”

“In the next few moments”, he continued, “The others will set this building ablaze”

“Please don’t”, she stammered almost against her will, and he gave a chuckle.

“Your blood would be worth so much Detective”, he said, “I regret that loss, but I’ll take not getting captured over profit any day.

The trapper moved to leave, and Thea lunged forward, not sure what this was going to do anyway, but she did not care about anything else.

_Felix and Mason are still in here, I can’t let them get caught up in this._

_Maybe I can stop him?_

But all of her luck had just ran out, and he socked her across the face, and she stumbled back, the side of her face starting to sting.

“I’ve already taken all that I need out of here”, he said, “Why did you think it was empty?”

He turned his back on her to leave, but she was not going to let it end like this.

_I can’t let him get away, I can’t._

_This might be our only chance._

She could feel the vague smell of smoke in the distance, and it was all she needed.

Thea tried with all of her might to lunge at him again, but he dodged it easily before pushing her to the ground, the bruise that she could feel forming at the side of her face still stinging.

“Sorry you had to be a lose end, Detective”, he smirked, “You seem like such a lovely woman. But I’ve gotten my people out of here, and that is all that is needed.

He kicked her once again for good measure, and he left the room, and the smell of smoke was starting to get overwhelming making her eyes water.

She tried to pull herself off the ground, but she just stumbled back to the ground, and it was already becoming harder and harder to breathe.

_Where did they start the fire in the first place?_

But she pushed that thought away, knowing that hardly mattered now.

_I have to get out of this. I have to._

Thea thoughts went back to Felix and Mason and her heart tighten at the thought.

_They are going to make it out, right? They have to._

She tried to get on her feet again, and even with every part of her nerves screaming in agony, and she tried to stay below the smoke line that had formed, but it did nothing to the now burning feeling in her lungs as she kept breathing, it becoming harder and harder to.

_I’m not going to die here; I’m not going to die._

Thea managed to drag herself to the staircase, and she could now see visible flames that were started to curl throughout the room, and she knew that if she did not get out of here quickly, she would end up trapped.

But in her panic, she had forgotten about the rickety staircase, already weak when the three of them had walked up it, but it was now even weaker, and as she stepped on one step around six steps to the bottom, her foot caved inside, and she fell all the way to the ground.

_Oh no, please, not now._

In horror, she realized that she could no longer move her right ankle, the sharp pain that was now flooding that region was starting to dull all of the pain everywhere else.

_Can I drag myself out of here? Can I?_

Breathing heavy, she pulled herself to her stomach, and she started to drag herself through the room by her arms, even though she knew about the glass that was on the floor, knowing that there was no other way to get out of here.

She was starting to feel lightheaded, and a part of her almost wanted to lay down her head and quit fighting.

_It would be so much easier._

_No, you are not going to talk like this to yourself!_

Thea kept pushing through, dragging herself across the floor.

_You survived Murphy, you’ve survived every supernatural being after you blood, you can get out of this too._

It was not till then that she realized that she holding her breath, but trying to get fresh air in here was impossible, and trying to breathe only made her cough in return.

She finally made it to the front door, and she pushed it open, still dragging herself over the concrete that was scratching up her skin, and she could feel burns start to form from how hot the floor was on her hands and wrists.

Thea finally made it outside, flopping down in the long grass that was outside of the building, but breathing was not any easier, and she still gave coughs just trying to do so.

_I need to get farther out; I need to get as far away as I can._

New scratches and cuts were piling on top of old ones as she continued to drag herself across the ground, it now pavement instead of grass, and she made it about 10 feet before she just could not go on anymore.

She collapsed to the ground, her ankle still numb, and she was not sure if it was broken or just badly sprained, and she weakly managed to turn herself on her back, staring at the now dark sky ahead.

_When did it get so dark?_

The only light that she could see were the old streetlamps that were filling the area with an almost eerie glow, and she continued to cough, still not able to feel like she could breathe.

Thea could feel like black spots were forming in from of her eyes, the darkness making her panic internally, her heartbeat speeding up more than it already was.

_Is this how I’m going to die?_

She felt a sob build up in her chest, her whole body full of so much pain that everything in her surroundings seemed like it was barely there.

_Where are Felix and Mason?_

Her mood only sunk at the thought of them, and she prayed helplessly that they were able to get out.

_This is all your fault. There had to be something you could have done to stop them._

The rational part of her mind told her, that being vampires, they would probably get out of there alright, but it did nothing against the intense anxiousness that was flooding over her senses.

Thea had been able to hold back tears until now, but she could feel her eyes water with tears that felt like they were corroding her skin.

_Adam_

_I’m never going to get to see him again._

She finally gave into the sob that was building up in her chest, freely crying, even as much as it hurt at the thought of him.

_I’m so sorry Adam, I’m so sorry._

The image of him flooded her mind, and she tried to take out the thought of him finding her here, instead trying to focus on the soft smile that she had only seen a few times, but had always treasured anyway.

Her thoughts went back to that kiss, and even with how it ended afterward, all she could remember at the moment was the softness of it all, his hand in her hair, and it filled her with a warm feeling that she never wanted to push away.

Thea could feel herself smile, even as painful as it was to do so, the tears still falling down her face.

_I love you Adam, despite everything._

The comforting feeing was pushed down at the thought of Adam coming here after she breathed her last breath, and due to it get getting harder and harder to do so, she was getting more and more fearful that she was running out of time.

_I’m going to die, and he’s never going to know._

She tried to push away that thought, and she allowed herself to hope.

_I hope that he could see that I do. I really want him to know._

_Not like I would ever have gotten the guts to tell him anyway._

Thea gave a long shaky breath, and the dark spots were staring to overtake her eyes, until she could barely see in front of her, but she captured the image of Adam’s green eyes, and allowed them to comfort her as her eyesight faded completely.


	21. Part 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy this! (Feeling unsure about it, but I don't think I can look at it anymore haha)

Adam was not sure why they had even asked for their help in all honesty.

Going through each person that might have been exposed was tedious, but it definitely could be done without having to get him and Nate involved in it.

He was pleased just to get it over with, but he would lying to say that it had not been welcome distraction to everything that was swirling in his head.

Nate was not much longer, and he soon went to stand next to Adam.

“Everything go alright with you?”

“It did”, he replied, “And I trust the same for you?”

“Luckily, yes”, he said, “I’m sure they’ll be glad for to put all this mess behind them”.

Adam nodded, not knowing what else to say, and Nate looked like he was about to say something else when someone came walking up to the two of them.

“You are Commanding Agent du Mortain, are you not?”, she asked him, her flaming red hair cut short around her ears, and from her pupil less eyes, she was not human.

“I am”, he answered almost hesitantly, confused to why she was asking.

“Then you are the leader of Unit Bravo?”

He looked back at Nate before answering, as if a confirmation that this was just as strange as he thought it was, which was something that he seemed to think as well.

“That is true”, he said, “What is this about?”

“You work with Detective Holland then?”

Adam could feel his chest tighten at the mention of her, but he did his best to nod.

“Has no one told you about the interrogation?”, she asked.

“I know that she and Agent Mason were doing one, but from the way you’re speaking about it, I’m going to assume there is far more to it”.

She shrugged, “The best way to show you would just be showing you the end of the video”.

“Did something go wrong?”, Nate suddenly asked, a crease of worry appearing on his face.

“No, not exactly”, she started, “It all worked out well in the end”

“Then what is this about?”, Adam asked.

“The easiest thing to do would just be to show you”, she said, “Follow me”

Adam gave one look at Nate before following her, already getting an awful feeling about what this was about.

She led them to a computer in the corner of the room, and inserted a CD, and a video started to play of the interrogation room, “Now, she starts out the interrogation well, and even with his efforts to turn it on her, she does a good job at getting it back on topic. But since you are the leader of the team and I trust you have some semblance of care for your teammates, what happens afterward is something that you should know about and it is probably best if you were the one who asked her about this”.

It took all Adam had not to outwardly scoff.

_I think semblance of care is putting it mildly at this point._

“I’m going to skip ahead to the part that I think you will want to see”, she continued.

The video speeds forward, and Adam watched the sped-up footage of Thea, trying his best to read her even with it being sped up, watching intently at the masking look that she putting in front of her eyes, and the fake smile she had plastered on her lips, and from the look Nate was giving him, he was not the only one who noticed it.

“Right here”, she said, suddenly stopping the tape, and he blinked at the sudden stop of it, “This is what I think you need to know about”. She then turned back to it, and pressed play.

“I’m offering you to tell me what you know if exchange for a lighter sentence. That’s it”, Thea’s quiet but firm voice said, and it was then when he realized how much he missed hearing it.

He watched as the trapper gave her look that he did not quite understand, and he finally heard what had to be what she wanted him to see.

“Who broke your heart, songbird?”

Adam could feel his hands clench at the question, and he tried to ignore the look that Nate was giving him, and he watched helplessly as her expression feel, biting her lip as she did when she was trying to stop herself from saying something.

“What are you talking about?”, she eventually said, and he watched her give a shaky breath.

_I don’t think I can watch any more of this_.

But it was like watching a car crash, he wanted to look away, but he could not. This was his fault, was it not? How could he look away now?

The trapper gave her a smirk, as he knew he had her as he continued, “I’ve done a few interrogations of my own, you know. I’ve seen that look before. You’re trying hard to hide it, but the wounds are still fresh. How recent was it?”

He continued to push it, as Thea’s face fell, “Oh dear, you thought you could hide it from me? With your open face, I don’t think you could hide anything if you tried”

He watched as she gripped the file in her hands, and she closed her eyes as a way for her to compose herself, but he had enough.

“Stop it”, he finally said, trying to keep his voice as level as possible “I get it, I’ll talk to her about it”

She raised an eyebrow at his words, but decided not to push it, which was something he was grateful for, the video continued to play in the background, and he vaguely noticed that Mason had walked in, but his ears were ringing so loud that he barely noticed.

“It has been the talk of the facility”, she said, “I wanted you to not hear it from the rumor mill and see what actually happened. The detective of Wayhaven is quite known around here, and this was quite a big deal when it happened.

“Thank you for that”, Nate said, giving her a smile, a worried eye still on Adam.

He shook his head in an attempt to try and clear the memory from his head, and he on one hand wanted to message Thea immediately and on the other hand wanted to march to where that trapper was and give him a piece of his mind.

But he then heard something just as the tape was about to end, he heard something that about made him lose all self-control.

““It’s been nice meeting you _”,_ the trapper said as she turned to leave, “Hopefully you recover quickly, _liebling_ ”.

He felt himself tense at the words, and watching the sudden anguished look on her face sent a sudden prick up his spine.

“You know what’s strange”, she said, turning off the tape, “I don’t know why she and the other two were on that mission in the first place”

“I was told it was a last-minute thing that needed to be filled”, Nate suddenly said, his worried gaze never leaving Adam

“It was last-minute”, she explained, “But Delta was going to take care of it. But apparently, the handler of Unit Bravo asked for it”.

_What?_

He felt like his breath had been knocked out of him at that, and with nothing else that he could say, he stormed out of the facility, needing to get some air, Nate following at his heels, and he scarcely heard him throw her an apology as they left.

“Adam, wait”, Nate called after him, but he hardly payed attention to it.

“I knew”, he stammered, “I knew that something was off about them being put on the mission in the first place, but everything just has been a mess recently and- “

“Adam”, Nate said again firmly, “We’ll figure out what happened later”

“What we know is that Agent Holland blatantly lied about it”, he continued, “And I don’t know why”.

“It is unlikely that Thea would have agreed to it otherwise”, Nate said calmly, “But honestly, I don’t know why she did”

He then paused as Adam turned his head away, and he sighed, “Are you alright?”

“I don’t know Nate”, Adam scoffed, “Am I?”

_Currently, Thea’s been blaming herself for something that I did._

_Yeah, I sure feel amazing right now._

“You’ll be able to talk to her about it”, Nate said, as if he knew what he was thinking, “It’s going to turn out fine”

“You don’t know that”, he growled.

_She probably wants nothing to do with me now._

_And I don’t think I would blame her._

“Look, you won’t know unless you actually try”, Nate replied, “And I highly doubt Thea wants nothing to do with you, even as hurt as she is right now”.

Adam sighed in an attempt to not say anything else, and he pulled out his phone.

And a small notification about made him panic even more then he already was.

_Missed Call-Detective Thea Holland_

“What is it?”, Nate asked, concern lining his face.

He unlocked his phone and was about to immediately call her back, but he saw that she had left a voicemail, so he went to listen to that.

“Hey, it’s Thea”, her voice rang out, it all he could hear, “The three of us ran into some massive trouble and we need help. I don’t know where Felix and Mason are. Please, if you get this, call me. Please”

Nate’s mouth slowly dropped open in shock, and he knew that he muttered something, but Adam was hardly paying attention to it at the moment, and finally pressed that call button, the time spent waiting for her to pick up felt like forever

_Please pick up, Thea_

_Please_

_I can’t be too late, right?_

The call finally connected, and he felt himself breathe a sigh of relief, “Thea?”

“Afraid not”, said a sinister voice on the other end that was definitely not her, and the moment of relief immediately died, “Looks like your too late, _Adam”_

“What did you do?”, he asked, anger rising in his voice.

“Don’t blame me for it”, they continued, giving a laugh that made him tense, “They were the ones that came wandering into my turf in the first place. But I did hear something about the blood of the detective, and I just wonder how much profit could be made from it. A little bird told me that the rouges would absolutely _kill_ for it”

_Don’t take her away from me. I can’t go through that again._

“If you touch her, I swear to God I- “, he growled, and they continued to laugh.

“Can’t do much from so far away, can you? And by the time that you get here, we’ll be long gone. The detective, and the two vampires who were with her”

“I will find you”, he said firmly, “And I will bring you in, mark my words”

“Confident much?”, they asked, a sneer in their words, “Good luck with finding me then. I’m going to quite enjoy this chase”

They hung up the phone after that, and it took all Adam not to crush his own phone in his grasp.

“We have to go after them”, Adam said, breathing heavily, worry creeping in his voice, and this time, he could care less, “Where did they go?

“They found out the location here”, Nate said, shoving his hands in his pockets in what looked like to be an effort to keep them still, “We could go get that”

“Then that’s what we do”, he huffed, and he started to move to go back inside, but Nate reached out to place his hand on his shoulder.

“We should wait for backup”

‘If we wait, we could lose our chance”, he countered, “And then who knows where they will be? We have to do this”

Nate closed his eyes, obviously not liking that idea, but he nodded, “Alright. But we don’t know what we are getting into”

“And neither did the rest of team”, Adam replied, “We owe this to them, you can’t argue against that.

He sighed in response, but all the fight that he had seemed to leave him, “We do”.

Adam gave him a nod, and he made his way back inside, one thought running through his head.

_I can’t fail them, I can’t._

His mind then went back to Thea, and his resolve only increased.

_I’m coming for you Thea. Just please hold on._


	22. Part 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy! :)

The entire drive over could have been considered a form of torture.

The building that Thea, Felix, and Mason went to was a few hours out of the way, and Adam could feel himself getting more and more nervous.

_What if we are too late?_

Adam looked over to Nate, who looked about just as lost as he felt, his hands were out of his pockets, but he was wringing them together like he had never seen him do before.

Part of him wanted to ask him if it was indeed too late, in order to try and get his normal reassuring answer and allow it to comfort him, but he was not sure if Nate could even convince himself at the moment, much less him as well.

His grip tightened on the steering wheel as he continued to drive in an attempt to stop his hands from shaking, but it did nothing for the pit of worry that had not left his stomach.

_Where could Thea be?_

He gave a long shaky breath at the thought of her, the image of her heartbroken blue eyes overwhelming him, but he pushed it away.

_She’s going to be alright._

_She has to be._

The three of them should have never been on that mission in the first place, and now there was a chance he could lose them all.

_I can’t let that happen, I can’t._

“I think we need to call the Agency”, Nate suddenly spoke.

“What?”, he asked at the sudden statement, “Why?”

“We still don’t know what we are walking into”, he explained, “I understand not wanting to wait for backup, but we might need it. At least this way, there may be some help coming”

“Okay”, he nodded, too distracted to fight him on it, not that he disagreed with it either.

He got out his phone, and fiddled with it for a few minutes before he finally made the call, and Adam was barely paying attention to what he was saying, letting it all wash over him.

_It’s all going to turn out fine. It has to._

“Alright, thank you”, he heard Nate say as he hung up the phone, and he turned back to him, “There should be a good few people coming”

“Sounds good”, he said simply.

“They aren’t very happy about us leaving without telling anyone”, he continued.

“We’ll worry about that later”, Adam countered, with a harsher tone then he intended, “The circumstances demanded it”

“I’m not trying to argue with you on this”, he replied, “I’m just letting you know”

He gave a weak nod, and Nate looked like he wanted to say something else, but he heard him sigh, and he slouched back in the passenger seat.

“Do you think everything will turn out okay?”, he finally got the nerve to ask, and his chest tightened at the way that he gave a weak shrug at that.

“I really don’t know”, he muttered, “And I really wish I did”

Adam tried to ignore the way that it made him even more anxious, and he tried to strengthen his resolve, squaring his shoulders as he did so.

_There has to be some hope._

They were about a mile away from their destination when he started to smell smoke.

_Smoke?_

“Any idea where that could be from?”, Nate asked, having noticed it as well.

“Not near us, no”, he said, his voice trailing off as he had a moment of realization.

_It can’t possibly be…_

_You don’t know for sure yet, don’t think about this now._

But it was not long before the sight of flames could be seen, towering over the surroundings, and Adam could feel his heart pound.

_No, please no._

The place where they had been directed to, to which the person who told them about it said it was a tall red brick building, was completely engulfed in flames, part of the roof already having caved in, and there was no sign of it stopping.

He slammed on the brakes and turned off the car in a hurry, and almost sprinting out of the car, Nate hot on his heels.

The air around seemed to be radiate heat, and being closer to the smoke just made it harder and harder to breathe.

But it was hardly what he was worried about.

_We’re too late._

“They’re gone”, he managed to choke out, trying to hide back the wave of emotion in his voice, “He said they would be gone when we got here and- “

“If they are still alive, we’ll find them”, Nate said, but from the shaky tone in his voice, he was unsure of the outlook himself.

_Still alive._

Adam got the sudden urge to fall to the ground, and he just managed to keep himself standing, trying to breathe a deep breath to keep his composure.

_Not here. I can’t fall apart here._

“I’m sure all three of them are alive”, Nate quickly added, as if he just realized what he had said.

“You don’t know that”, he felt himself whisper, and it took a little to realize that he had spoken it aloud.

_I can’t lose her, I can’t._

_Not like this. I don’t think I can take it._

“Maybe there is something around here that could give us an idea where they went?”, Nate asked, but he was not sure whether he had just said it to try and make him feel better.

“The fire has probably taken anything that was left”, he said, even as much as he wanted to deny it and agree with him, “And I doubt the trappers left anything important behind”.

He gave a shaky sigh, a sense of urgency filling his voice, “There is not much for us to do while we wait for the Agency. If there is anything, we need to find it”

Adam could not argue with that, even with the sinking feeling that the both of them would not find anything.

_Thea’s last memory of you is going to be the words you should have, for once, taken back._

_“This was a mistake”_

He shook his head in an attempt to get that out of his head.

_It’s not going to be. I’m not going to accept that._

The two of them started to make their way closer to the front of the building, and a sudden yell made them both turn around

“ _Περίμενε_!”

The voice was in a language that he recognized being Greek, but he knew next to nothing about it, and he saw a dryad, her dark green hair falling in messy clumps around her face, the leaves in her hair a sickly yellow. Her white dress was tattered, and her almost green-tinted skin was covered in dirt.

Adam looked to Nate, as if asking him what to do, and he stepped forward, saying something back to her in Greek.

The two of them talked for a bit, and he could feel his stomach tighten as he watched his face fall as she continued to talk, and it was starting to put him on edge.

“What did she say?”, he finally asked, not able to hold it back any longer.

“She said that three people helped her get out”, he answered, an audible shake in his voice, “And the trappers left them behind after the fire”

_Please, no._

Before Nate could try and talk him out of it, he ran off, frantically searching for any sign of any of them.

_Did they get trapped inside?_

He knew that Felix and Mason would probably turn out okay if they did, providing how much they were weakened before, but _Thea._

_She can’t be dead, she can’t._

Adam tried to swallow down the sob in his throat, his eyes starting to sting, but he was not sure if that was from the smoke from the still raging fire or the tears that were threatening to spill, but as he made his way around the building, his steps quickening and hardly thinking straight, he saw a figure on the ground.

And he could feel his heart fall to his feet as he realized who it was.

_Thea_

He was full on sprinting now, and even with the roaring sound in his ears, he found the sound of her heartbeat, weak, but still there.

_Oh, thank God._

The relief did not last long as he realized that he was not conscious, and her breathing came out weak and ragged.

Adam dropped down to his knees next to her, and before he even knew what was he was doing, he picked her up, letting her head rest against her arm, almost cradling her, and he finally got a good look at her.

It was not till then that he realized just how _tiny_ Thea was. She was almost a full foot shorter than him, but she never had seemed so small until this moment, being almost dwarfed by his broad arms, her right ankle bent in an unnatural position. Her yellow sweater and blue jeans were covered in soot and dirt, scratches and cuts covering about every visible inch of her skin. Her dark chocolate brown hair fell in uneven clumps, full of tangles, and her face, while also covered in dirt, had clear line of tears that ran down her checks, and he could feel his chest tighten at the sight of it.

He knew he should have left to try and find Nate, but he stayed put, almost marveling at the fact that she was here at all, and he moved his hand to brush her hair out of her face, and even with it covered in soot, it was still surprisingly soft.

“Thea”, he whispered, not sure if she could even hear him, but not caring in the slightest about that. He left out a shaky breath, and he then pleaded, “Please wake up. Please”

_I’m not strong enough to lose you._

_I don’t think I could take it._

“I have so much I need to say to you”, he continued, his voice getting more and more unsteady at the minute, “I _need_ you Thea. I don’t think I could go on without you”

_I love you._

Before Adam could even realize what, he was doing, he moved his head down to rest his forehead on his, it feeling almost feverish from how warm it was, and he tried to concentrate on her heartbeat.

“I’m so sorry”, he choked out, closing his eyes as he said it to keep himself from crying, “I’m sorry I’m not what you deserve”

He let out another shaky breath, and he heard a hacking cough that was not his own, and he moved his head back as he slowly watched Thea’s Atlantic blue eyes flutter open.

“Adam?”, she weakly said, her eyes seeming to be fighting to stay open, “Is it- really you?”

“It’s me”, he replied, relief filling his whole being with a rush, and he was unable to keep a smile off his face.

Her eyebrows then furrowed in worry, “Do you know where Felix and Mason are?”

“I don’t”, he admitted, almost forgetting all about them, “But I’m sure there fine. They would be able to get out of there”

She weakly nodded, and he saw her eyes threatening to close again.

“Hey”, he said gently, “Eyes on me, okay?”

_I need to see your eyes. I have to._

Thea gave a weak laugh, “I’m trying. It’s just getting harder”

“I’m not leaving”, he said resolutely, “You are going to get out of this, alright?”

_You have to._

“I’m going to be by your side until the end”, he said, and he felt his heart pound at the thought that this might be the end, “I promise”

“Adam”, she softly whispered, and he continued,

“Once we all get back, maybe I’ll take you to see the fireworks again”

_And maybe, I’ll actually kiss you this time like I should have done._

She gave a weak smile, “I’d really like that. But Adam?”

“Yes?”

“I’m so sorry”, Thea said, giving a cough as she said it, and he tightened his grip on her in response.

“You have nothing to apologize for”, he assured her, “I should be telling saying that to you”

“I should have- “, she began, but he gently shushed her.

“None of what happened is your fault, do you understand me?”

He paused before continuing, saying the words that he should have said a long time ago, “You are more than I could ever deserve”

Adam watched her eyes grow wide, and she opened her mouth to say something, before biting her lip in order to stop it from spilling out and he got the nerve to move his hand back through her hair, which he felt her exhale from the touch.

“I mean that”, he affirmed, “I’m not lying to you”

Her breath caught, and he swore he could see the start of new tears at the edge of her eyes, but she gave him another small smile, but as she did so, her eyelids were starting to grow heavy again.

“Please hold on”, he pleaded, “Please”

_I still need you._

“I’m- really glad you’re here”, she whispered.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else”, he reassured her.

Thea weakly moved her hand to rest on top of his, her hand somehow still freezing, and it sent goosebumps over his skin.

But her eyes closed, and this time, she was not fighting to open them up again, and her head rolled over to lean on his chest.

“Thea”, Adam said quietly, but it was not long before his voice came to almost pleading yell, “Thea! Please come back!”

_Please don’t leave me._

Her eyes did not open again, and her ragged breathing and weak heartbeat rang loud in his ears.

He could feel his eyes start to sting with unshed tears, and he gripped Thea tighter, bringing her closer to him.

“I can’t take losing you”, he whispered, finally saying what he had only said in his head, “I know I can’t”

Adam moved his head closer to hers, and he finally said the three little words that he had only said in his head for so long.

“I love you Thea. I love you”

He looked back at her, almost as if saying it would make her wake up again, but she did not stir again.

“I said it”, he breathed out, “I said it. Please wake back up. Please”

Without knowing what else he could do, feeling like he was trapped in a nightmare, knowing that he should try and find Nate, but he felt frozen to his spot.

He moved his head back forward, and he gave her a gentle kiss at the top of her forehead, and even though it tasted of ash, he hardly cared.

“Adam!”

A familiar voice made him turn, and it was only then that he realized that the fire had died off, and while there will still remnants of it there, most of the building that could be burned had already been completely destroyed.

He saw Felix and Mason, looking a little worse for wear but otherwise alright, running up to him, two people behind him he did not recognize, but guessed they were some of the trapper’s prisoners.

“It’s so good to see you”, Felix laughed out, but he could hear true relief in his voice, but as his face fell to Thea, he could see his amber eyes fill in worry.

“Get Nate”, was all that he could choke out.

Mason gave a nod, and he went off, the two prisoners behind him, and Felix came over to kneel down next to them.

“Is she okay?”, he asked, moving his gaze to Adam.

_I don’t know._

He could not bring himself to answer that, becoming more and more fearful that this would be his last moment with her.

“Thea’s tough”, Felix said, but as he went on, it was more of like he was trying to convince himself, “She’ll make it through just fine”

_Will she?_

_She has to._

He put his arm on his shoulder when he did not say anything, and even though he tensed at the touch, he did not try to pull away.

“She saved us, you know”, Felix continued, “It was her that got out first, and then she got us out. We told her to go ahead of us in order to get one prisoner out while Mason and I got the other two, but we should not have separated”

His voice faltered, “It’s our fault. Thea was against us splitting up. We should have listened to her”.

“It’s not”, Adam quietly said, speaking for the first time since he came over here.

_You guys should have never been on this mission in the first place._

_And you never would have been if that kiss never happened._

He looked back at Thea, trying to keep himself together as he looked at her, praying that she would pull through.

_Please don’t take away the only light I have._

Felix looked a bit awed that he had even said anything in the first place, and he continued, “You’ll figure it out, Adam. Everything regarding this, and everything afterwards”

He then took a breath before continuing, “I wish I knew how to help you more”

_You’ve helped me more then you could ever know._

“You do help”, he said simply, never taking his eyes off Thea, watching closely the gentle rise and fall of her chest, hoping that he would not have to see it stop.

Before he could say anything else, he saw Nate running up to the both of them.

“Mason told me what happened”, he said breathlessly, and then he looked down at Thea, and back at Adam, “Are you okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”, he almost scoffed out, seeming like a ridiculous question to him given Thea the way the she was.

“We need to get her to the Agency”, he said, ignoring the harshness of his original statement, “You need to move”

And even though walking felt like he was walking through cement, he got up anyway, taking Thea up with him, her almost seeming to weigh nothing at all, and he gently tried to keep her head leaning against his chest and not flopping to the other side away from him.

Nate gave him a nod, and he started making his way back, his steps quickening as he did so, and he quickened his own in response, Felix close behind the both of them.

It did take the group of them long to catch up with Mason, who was standing next to the trapper’s prisoners, and he saw the dryad that had originally came up to him and Nate perk up as they did so, asking a question to him in Greek.

He answered back, but from the worry lines on his face, she had asked about Thea, and he could feel his chest tighten at the thought, grasping her firmer than he already was.

“The Agency should be here soon”, Nate said in English, “You won’t have to wait long”

_I really hope we don’t._

Mason came walking up to him, his grey eyes filled with the rare look of obvious worry.

“Did she wake up at all?”, he asked him.

“She did”, Adam muttered, never taking his eyes off of her, “We talked for a little bit before she passed out again”.

“That’s a good sign, you know”, Mason said, “She’ll pull through”

_God, I hope so._

But as he thought that, as if some true twist of fate, he heard her heartbeat get even slower, and from the look in Mason’s eyes, he had heard it to.

_Please don’t leave me behind Thea._

He knelt back to the ground, and it was like he was unable to stay still, rocking them both, and he realized exactly what he must do.

_I made a promise to stay with her. I’m not going to breaking the last promise I could ever give her._

_I’ve already hurt her enough._

The next few minutes were a blur for Adam, and he was not sure just how long it was. It could have been hours for all that he knew. Everyone else was watching the road for any sign of the Agency, but it was hardly what he was worried about.

“You mean everything to me”, he choked out, and at that moment, he did not care who heard.

_You are everything._

_Everything that I’ll never be, and everything that I don’t deserve._

“Commanding Agent”, said a voice suddenly that he did not recognize, “You need to let her go”

“No”, he growled, almost against his will.

_I’m not leaving her._

And if this was indeed her last moments, he was not going to let her go alone.

_I’m staying by her until the end._

_She deserves that much, for all that I’ve failed to give her._

“Adam, you need to”, Nate’s gentle voice broke in, and he sighed, “They’ll be able to help her”

“I’m not letting her go”, he said, barely aware of what he was even saying.

Nate looked to the Agency paramedic, “Is there any possibly he can stay with her?”

They shrugged, “He can”

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he finally relented, gently laying her down on the ground as if she was the precious thing in the world.

Adam grabbed her limp hand, and he entwinned their fingers together, his hand almost completely covering her small one.

“Commanding Agent”, he heard someone say again.

He looked up, to see one of the paramedics, Thea’s locket in his hands. The locket that for as long as he had known her, was always around her neck. Adam did not know the significance of it, but he did know it was incredibly important to her

“I think you should hang onto this”, they said, moving to place it in his free hand, and he could find no reason to argue against it.

Adam ran his hands over it, as he had seen Thea do a million times, the metal smooth and warm to the touch. It was a piece of her, and it was almost strange to not see it where it usually was.

It was not something that he felt like he deserved to hold on to, but he closed his hand around it anyway as the paramedic moved away.

_Please hold on for a little bit longer, Thea_

_I still need you._


	23. Part 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I am so sorry for not actually publishing one of the Parts on Ao3. It must have been very confusing if you are just reading this on here, sorry! It should be fixed now!
> 
> But I hope you enjoy this! Instead of going straight into the next part, let's do Thea's POV of the events of the last part!

Thea could feel herself wake up, her eyes still closed and the stabbing pain before she passed out still persisted.

_If I’m dead, then why does it hurt so much?_

She could vaguely feel someone’s arms around her, and they felt so safe and _familiar,_ but at the time, she could not think of why.

Fighting to open her eyes, she gave a cough, the smoke still having not left her lungs, and she barely saw someone move back from her face, and she then realized who it was.

_Adam_

He was hovering over her, his green eyes wide in worry that she did not think she had ever seen, his hands surprisingly trembling against her side, and part of her thought that she had to be dreaming.

_When did he get here?_

But even if this was all fake, she hardly cared, happy to have him this close to her.

_There are far worse ways to die._

“Adam”, she weakly whispered, blinking furiously to keep her eyes open, almost expecting him to disappear like a ghost when she said his name, “Is it-really you?”

Thea could feel his whole-body collapse in relief at her voice, and she was surprised to see a smile on his face, just barely showing his dimples, “It’s me”

She let out a shaky breath, and then she remembered Felix and Mason.

_They had to have gotten out right?_

_Would he know if they did?_

“Do you know where Felix and Mason are?”, she asked, worry filling in her voice.

He gave a sigh, ““I don’t. But I’m sure they’re fine. They would be able to get out of there”

Thea gave him a weak nod, and she could feel her eyes threaten to close again, the weight of her eyelids getting heavier and heavier by the minute.

_I don’t know how long I can stay awake._

“Hey”, he said”, his green eyes growing wide, his voice gentler than she had ever heard it before, “Eyes on me, okay?”

She never wanted to comfort him more than in this moment, looking more and more lost as time started to pass, but she was unsure at what to say.

_This could be the end._

Thea gave a weak laugh despite herself, “I’m trying. It’s not getting harder”

“I’m not leaving”, Adam said resolutely, but his voice was starting to shake, “You are going to get out of this, alright?”

He was looking more and more panicked by the second, and seeing him that way was almost enough to make her freak out internally.

“I’m going to be by your side until the end”, he continued, and Thea could feel her stomach flutter at the statement, “I promise”

_I need to tell him._

_Tell him what exactly?_

“Adam”, she softly whispered, but he ignored it.

“Once we all get back, maybe I’ll take you to see the fireworks again”

Thea felt like she had just swallowed a rock at the statement, and even though she could feel a blush forming on her cheeks, it was buried down by dread.

_I don’t know if I’ll get back._

But she gave a smile anyway, letting herself get lost in the moment again, “I’d really like that”

Her brain was still not well rested however, so she continued, “But Adam?”

“Yes?”

“I’m so sorry”, she simply said, the deeper meaning behind her words anyway, and she gave a cough with her words, and he tightened his grip on her, bringing her even closer than she already was.

“You have nothing to apologize for”, he said in a reassuring tone that she had only heard a few times, ““I should be telling saying that to you”

_No, I should_

_It’s my fault things ended this way._

_This shouldn’t be how it ends._

“I should have- “, she began, expecting to spill out everything, but he gently shushed her, and being so surprised by it, she stopped.

“None of what happened is your fault, do you understand me?”, Adam said, almost pleadingly, as if begging her to believe it was true. He then took a shaky breath, ““You are more than I could ever deserve”

_What?_

_Okay, I have to be dreaming. There is no way he would say something like that._

_Right?_

Thea could feel her eyes grow wide, and she was not sure what she could possibly say in return, as much as she wanted to say three words.

_I love you._

But she was not going to risk him pulling away now, she could not.

Adam then gently moved his hand through her hair, and she felt herself sigh at the touch, his fingers being surprisingly soft.

“I mean that”, he said afterward, still twirling her waves of hair in his fingers, “I’m not lying to you”

Even if Thea was sure what this was all fake, and she had finally lost her mind, she smiled at him anyway, his admission almost wanting to make her cry.

She wanted to say something else, but the weight on her eyelids suddenly hit her, and she fought hard to keep them open, trying to focus on Adam’s green ones.

“Please hold on”, he pleaded, and from how close he was, Thea could feel his heartbeat start to pound, “Please”

“I’m- really glad you’re here”, she whispered, trying to give him any comfort at all, futile as it may be.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else”, he said, his eyes almost having an adoring look in them.

In her own weakness, and even if it hurt to do so, she moved her hand to rest on top of Adam’s, hoping that would help anything at all.

But she could no longer fight it anymore, and her eyes closed, and she could vaguely remember her head rolling to the side to rest on Adam’s chest.

As if she was hearing his words underwater, Thea could hear him call out her name in an increasingly panicked voice, but there was not much more that she could do.

_I’m sorry_

_More then you could ever know_


	24. Part 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have more parts then I expected, but I hope you enjoy this! :)

Agency paramedics had rushed Thea back to the Agency as quickly as they could.

And that entire time, Nate had watched Adam never leaving her side.

He did not think he had seen him look so worried before, running his thumb on her hand in an effort to calm himself down, and he was scared to think how he would react if she did not make it.

_She’ll pull through, she’s made it this far._

They were now back at the warehouse, and it had caused quite a bit of tension when the doctors tried to get Adam to leave, and it took him stepping again and promising that he could come back as soon as possible in order to relent.

Nate also knew that he had gotten something from his room, that was now lying face down on Thea’s bedside table, but he did not know what it was.

It had almost been a full day since they had gotten back, and Thea had not woken up yet, and as soon as Adam was allowed back in, he had not left at all, sitting in a chair next to her bed, his hand still wrapped around hers, his free hand still wrapped around her necklace.

There was still a lot about the whole situation that was still unresolved, whether it now being the changing relationship between the two of them, or having to deal with the fact that Rebecca had lied about that mission in the first place.

But that was hardly what was the real issue at the moment, and the whole warehouse had been on edge with Thea the way she was, Felix having not smiled once since they had gotten back and Mason had been even more aloof than normal.

The door was open to Thea’s room, and Nate looked in to see that Adam was still there, and while normally he would have just kept walking and left them alone, he had the sudden desire to comfort him.

“Hey”, he said as gently as he could, Adam not turning around to face him, “How are you holding up?”

“That hardly seems like the question right now”, he responded, a growl in his voice.

Nate shook his head, not really expecting anything different from him currently, “She’s going to be okay”

“You don’t know that”, he muttered.

“No one knows anything for certain”, he replied, “But I feel sure about this. You’ll be able to fix everything”

“I don’t even know what we are now”, Adam suddenly said, and he could feel his eyebrows raise from the bluntness of it, not ever having him speak about his feelings in this sort of way.

“Then, what do you want the two of you to be?”, Nate asked.

“I- “, he began, before giving a long sigh, still rubbing his thumb in the top of Thea’s hand, “Don’t know”

“Adam, you know what you feel for her”, he said, a sudden streak of boldness hitting him, “Don’t hold back any longer. You’ve known for a long time, and maybe, it’s time to get all of that in the open”

“I want that, it’s just-”, he replied, his voice trailing off.

“Take it as slow as you need to”, Nate said, unable to hide a smile on his face, “Thea has already waited this long, I’m sure she’s still willing to be patient with you now”

Adam turned to face him for the first time, and he saw the hint of a smile of his own before turning back to Thea, and he took the opportunity to leave the room at that moment.

He was going to see if he could find the others, if not for who he saw in the main room.

“Agent Holland”, he said, walking over to her. She had been acting differently than the last time that Thea had ended up injured, instead of staying around, she had put a wide space between her and her daughter.

_And if I didn’t know any better, I would say it is from guilt._

“Agent Sewell”, she spoke as he came to stand next to her, “Do you need something?”

‘I think I’m the one that needs to ask you that”, he said, “But I have to know, why did you lie about it?”

She sighed, “I was doing my best to help, and at the time, I thought I did. I needed Thea to get out of all of this mess, and I knew she would have never gone if I did not make her go.”

Rebecca took a pause before continuing, “I should have left it alone. It probably would have been resolved much quicker if I had not. But I think the truth was that I just wanted a way to help without actually having to talk to her about it”

“That’s understandable”, Nate nodded.

“And now she almost died, and it was completely my fault”, she muttered, “The Agency is now upset that the trappers got away in the first place, and they want the whole Unit on it this time, but I don’t know if I want the team to ever touch this mission again. It’s caused so much pain already”

“There is no way you could have predicted the outcome”, he countered, “Everything is going to get fixed in the end”

“I haven’t spoken to Adam since he came back”, she continued as if she had not heard him, “And I don’t know how to approach him. I’ve never seen him like he is right now”

“I haven’t either”, Nate admitted, “But I think on the list of things that he cares about, you lying about it is very low on that list”

‘Thea doesn’t know”, Rebecca said, “And if-when she wakes up, she’s not going to be very happy about it either”

“It happened”, he stated simply, “It happened, and we are just going to take it how it comes. But it is going to end up, okay. I really believe that”

She gave a small nod, and while she said nothing else, the meaning behind it was obvious.

_Thank you._

Giving her a smile, he made his way back down the hallway of the warehouse, still holding on to the hope that all of this would turn out okay.


	25. Part 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, disclaimer for this part, we really do not know much about deep relationship Adam at all, so I’m making a bunch of assumptions mostly based on one Patreon post. Hopefully it comes across well anyway! :)

Thea could vaguely feel someone’s hand on hers, and while she was not sure who it was, it felt so familiar.

_Adam?_

Slowly, the memories were starting to find order in her head, and it started to overtake her.

_Did that moment with him really happen?_

She blinked her eyes awake, finding it easier to breathe than it had been earlier, and while some pain still resisted, it was small compared to what she had felt earlier.

Looking up at the ceiling, she realized that she was back in her room at the warehouse.

_When did I get here?_

Taking a needed deep breath, she turned her head to the direction of her held hand, to see that it was indeed Adam, his head lowered, almost as if lost in thought.

_He’s really here._

Gently, she squeezed his hand back, and she watched him move his head up to face her.

“Thea?”, he whispered, a sigh of relief on his words.

“I’m still here”, she said, giving him the best smile, she possibly could.

“You are”, he stated simply, his icy green eyes full of a softness that she rarely saw, “How are you feeling?”

“Way better than I did earlier, that’s for certain”, she replied, “I’m happy you’re here”

Adam gave her a hint of a smile, “I could think of no other place I’d rather be”

Even with the warm moment between them, the mission went back into her mind, and she had to ask about it.

“Are Felix and Mason okay?”

“They’re fine”, he confirmed, “They were able to get out safely”

She felt a weight lifted off her shoulders at that, but she needed to tell him something.

_If I had been better, the trappers would have not gotten away._

“Adam, it’s my fault the trappers got away”, and when he looked like he was about to interject, she grasped his hand tighter, “I should have been able to stop the leader, but I couldn’t. I just ended up making a fool of myself, and I let them escape”

“Thea”, he said firmly, “It wasn’t your fault. You could have not predicated what would have happened”

“There had to be a way that I could handed it better”, she countered.

“Look”, Adam huffed out, “Right, now, I’m just happy you’re back. We’ll worry about the rest later. That group is going to take a lot more than you three to stop”

_Happy you’re back?_

She could her eyes widen at the words, and even though he looked like he realized what he had just said, he did not push her away, which surprised her, instead almost getting closer.

` “I should tell the others you’re awake”, he said, “But I need to tell you something first”

“And that would be?”

“Back when you had just left”, he started, obviously unsure how to say it, “I may have found something”

“What did you find?”, she asked a bit confused to what he could possibly be referring to.

He swallowed hard, before grabbing a piece of paper off of her nightstand, and she felt her face drop when she realized what it was.

_My letter._

She could feel her face start to burn, embarrassment starting to overwhelm her, and she got up off her back to lean against her headboard.

“Oh, that”, she felt her words trail off, “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it”

_Of all the people who had to find it, why did it have to be him?_

_What am I going to even say?_

“Thea”, he said, seeming unsure himself on how to proceed, “I think it’s a little more than nothing”

She shut her eyes, as if that would get him to stop talking about it, but she gave an uneasy sigh, “It was just for myself, I never meant for it to leave my journal”

_And it never should have._

But as she watched him, his face looked different then it had looked before, and knowing what was in that letter, he should have just pushed her away like he always had done.

Instead, he was closer than he ever was before, and she could not think of why.

_This shouldn’t have brought him closer, why is it?_

“It meant a lot to me”, he suddenly said, and she turned in surprise.

“What do you mean?”, Thea could not help but ask.

“I- “, he started, and then with an almost chuckle “I’m not good at this at all”

_At this?_

“Your letter”, he repeated, before taking a deep breath, “I- feel the same way you do”

_What?_

“Adam I- “, she stammered out, not sure how to take it, but from the way that her stomach was fluttering, hope was starting to fill her.

_Could he truly?_

“You’re not lying?”, she asked when he did not say anything else, almost expecting him to take it back or disappear out of the room like he was never even here.

But he did not.

“I’ve never been surer of something in my entire life”, he breathed out, “And I may not quite understand it at all, but I can’t push you away anymore. Not after what happened”

He then muttered under his breath, and she was not sure if she was supposed to hear it, “Not after almost losing you”

“Is that something you want?”, she said as if she had not heard what he muttered, even if her brain was in a frenzy over it.

“Yes”, he stated simply, and she was sure she had never been so affected by a single word before.

“Then does that mean-?”, she started.

“I guess?”, he finished, and Thea could feel herself start to laugh.

“We’ll figure it out”, she said with a smile, and Adam gave her a smile in return.

“I should really tell the others you’re awake”, he brought up, “But I wanted to give you this”

Adam handed her what looked like a photograph, and her breath almost stopped by what it was.

It was the carnival picture, the one where he had his hands in hair, bringing him close to her, in a capture of a moment that she thought would never see again.

“I didn’t even know you had this”, she marveled, gazing back into his green eyes.

“Yeah, I have”, he said, “I’ve had it for a while now. But I don’t think I’ll need it anymore. Hold onto it for me, will you?”

‘Of course,”, she nodded, giving him a smile, “Thanks Adam”

He then gently removed his hand from hers, but seemed to take as long as possible to let the touch linger, wordlessly pressing her locket in her hands before turning around to give her a small smile before leaving the room.

Thea let the feeling of butterflies overwhelm her, completely in disbelief this actually had happened.

_Does this mean we’re dating now or-?_

_We’ll figure it out later_

In all of her dreams of this occurring, she never thought it come true, and she gazed down at the picture, an uncontained smile on her face.

_This is pretty amazing._

On a whim, she turned the picture over, and what was written on the back about sent her in more nerves than she already was.

_I love you_

Three little words, and she stared at them for a bit, reading them over and over as to confirm they were real.

And they were.

Thea smiled again, and she knew nothing could match what she was feeling in this moment.

_There has to be nothing that can top this._


	26. Part 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re reaching the end of this series! This is just kind of bonus part before we get to the epilogue. :)
> 
> You ever wondered how the kiss originally happened between these two in the first place? Well, let’s go back to before part 1 and find out. ;)
> 
> (Yes, I know it is kind of strange to put here, but I don't have many others places to put this)

Avoiding Thea never worked.

If anything, it just made things worse.

But Adam had no idea what else he could do. What would make it easier. The longer he spent apart from her, the more he found that he _missed_ her. Missed that gentle smile, that simple nod that she gave him as he locked eyes with her while he explained the mission ahead.

He missed her insight, seeing things in a way that he would have never done so. And before he met her, he might have regarded the ideas as foolish, but it was becoming more and more clear to him that there was wisdom in believing that everything did not have to end in a fight. That there were other ways to win beside the one that came to his mind first.

Adam had not seen Thea for a week, which was all his doing. She had been around the warehouse as much as she usually was, but he had done everything he could to avoid seeing her, hoping to finally damn these _feelings_ if he did not have to face her.

But he knew there was no chance of that happening, as much as he had wished it would.

_She deserves better._

_Don’t forget that_

_She is better off without a monster like you._

Even though he had those words in his thoughts, her voice seemed to find him anyway.

_“I don’t think you’re a monster, Adam”_

Such a simple statement, but it had haunted him since she had said it. Her voice had been soft, as if talking too loudly would have scared him off, but her voice had a certain firmness to it, leaving no doubt that she was being truthful and not just telling him what she thought he wanted to hear.

But God, it would make everything so much easier if she did. But she never had, and no matter how many times he pushed her away, trying hard to ignore the fleeting hurt in her eyes, she always just seemed _happy_ to see him again, no matter how many times it had happened.

Kindness that he never deserved, and knew he never would. Thea had never pushed him on the feelings in his head, even though he knew that there was no way she could be blind to it. She had let him try and figure it out for himself, while she stayed anyway.

Adam was unsure to exactly _why,_ whether she believed that it would not always be this way, or maybe that it would indeed always be this way, but never let that change how she treated him in the slightest.

_Why Thea, why?_

_Don’t you know I’ll just end up pushing you away again?_

She had some much she wanted to give, and she deserved someone who would give her just as much in return, if not more, and he was not that.

But at the same time, he dreaded the day when she did move on from whatever this was, finally finding someone who could let her see just how amazing she is, and he was disgusted with himself for it. Adam should be happy for her in that situation, but the nagging feeling of the what ifs, if he had given in, never left him.

_The what ifs could be something that I want._

He felt himself outwardly scoff at that.

_Don’t be ridiculous._

_You know how it should be._

Even so, he had heard from Nate that Thea was in the library, and he was headed there anyway, knowing that he should turn back around, but he needed to at least see her. It had been far too long. And with her staying in the warehouse for the weekend to fully be able to concentrate on research, avoiding her was just going to get harder.

He opened the door to the library, to find her curled up in one of the armchairs, one of the heavy tomes on her lap, looking lost into the swirling words, but she perked up as he walked in the room.

“Hey Adam”, she said, giving him a smile that never failed to make his pulse race, even as he tried to fight it down, “It’s good to see you”

_It’s good to see you._

Thea should have been upset with him after acting like she had not existed for the last week, but she was not, and she never was. Always just happy to see him, no matter how many times that he had done this.

He tried hard to fight down the swell of emotions at her words, “I’m just here to check in with you” He then paused, “But, you seem busy, so I’ll leave you be”, and he turned to go.

“You don’t have to go”

Adam spun back around, and he watched as her blue eyes went wide, as if she had not meant to say that, and she quickly added, “If you don’t want to, that is”

And as much as he knew that he should leave, he moved farther in the room anyway, not saying a word, but she seemed to understand the meaning anyway.

There were a few moments of silence, as either of them could not figure out what to say to the other, but he noticed that Thea would continually look back at a journal and back again, and he got the nerve to ask her what it was, finding it the easiest way to make conversation.

“Whose journal is that?”

Her hands moved to the heart-shaped locket around her neck almost on instinct, and she got up from the armchair, setting both the book and the journal back on the table before moving to stand next him, still a few feet away.

“My father’s”, she finally whispered, the weight in her words enough for him to understand the gravity of it all, and she then gave the smallest hint of a laugh, “It’s been interesting to read his perspective on everything”

“I’m sure it is”, he almost blurted out, and Thea gave him a smile, before a solemn look crossed her face.

“He wanted me to know”

“Know? Know what?”

“The supernatural”, she confirmed, “Apparently, it was something that my mother and him disagreed on”

She gave a light chuckle, “It’s weird to think how different things would have been if I did”

“It certainly would have changed quite a bit”, Adam said, and before he was even aware of what he was doing, he reached out to her, running his fingers on the curve of her jaw, her blue eyes widening as he did so, but she did not pull away, “I’m glad I met you, regardless”

He got the sudden urge to pull away, but the smile that she gave him made him forget everything that he should have done, and he gently moved closer to her, moving his hand to run through her hair.

And even with the screams in his head to stop, he felt himself move forward, and gently enough that she could pull away if she wanted to, he kissed her. At first it was barely there, just the mere whisper of a kiss, but Thea gently leaned into it, moving to stand on her tiptoes as she did so, and only one thing filled him.

_Bliss_

It was simply sweet, and it was everything that Adam could have ever have wanted, letting himself forget all that he should done, getting lost in the sensation that he never wanted to end.


	27. Part 24

_A few days later_

Adam’s brain had not calmed down at all the past few days.

And as confusing as all it was, he would not trade it for anything.

_As if I ever would._

The news had spread around the warehouse quickly, and he did not even have to say anything for everyone to find out, and Thea had apparently had not said much either.

He was still not sure what it all meant, but the previous night, when she had fallen asleep against his side, finally letting her closer to him, he knew he wanted this to last.

A part of him regretted taking this long to say something, and part of him regretted them having the world’s worst first kiss in order for it to finally happen, but he would do nothing to wipe the gentle smile off her face, brighter and sweeter than he had ever seen before, and it was all directed toward him.

It still blew his mind how Thea had fallen in love with someone like him, with all that he had done, but she had stayed by his side anyway, her kindness never fading despite his actions.

_And she loves without holding anything back._

Adam wished that he could give her the same in return, and after doubting it for so long, he was starting to believe that he could.

_Give her the unconditional love that she deserves so much._

Tonight, there was a summer festival in Wayhaven, and Thea was there, helping keep everything from going too out of hand.

He had initially resisted her going, her ankle not broken, but still badly sprained, and she was still limping slightly, but he knew that she wanted to get back to the town after being gone for so long, so he reluctantly agreed to let her go.

_She knows her limits, and I’m going to trust them._

But what Thea did not know was that he was coming, wanting to keep it a surprise.

_And acting like I was not going at first keeps the team from trying to follow me._

Adam made his way through the festival, gently brushing his hand on the single gloxinia flower he had brought with him, and he moved through the crowd looking for any sign of her.

The twilight had fallen when he gotten there, and now it was almost completely dark outside, while families were spreading their blankets out to watch the fireworks.

_Fireworks._

It only made him more eager to find her, and it did not take too long to do so.

He caught her eye near the edge of the long grassy area at the Wayhaven park, and he felt a smile on her lips as she turned to face him.

Even with all that she had been through the past few days, Thea was gorgeous as she always was, her long waist- length hair falling in gentle waves down her back, framing her bright blue eyes. She was dressed in her normal sundress, it white and decorated with pale pink roses. She wore sandals on her feet, the ankle brace visible through it, and as he gazed at her, she saw her face alight in smile.

“I didn’t think you guys were coming tonight”, she said as she walked over to him.

“Not all of us”, he replied, unable to hide a smile, “Just me”

“It’s really good to see you”, she grinned, a rosy blush starting to form on her cheeks, “I’m happy you came out tonight”

Adam moved closer to her, and he gently handed her the flower, which she gently accepted.

“You look beautiful”, he breathed out, unable to hold it back any longer.

“Thank you”, she beamed, her face getting redder, but then she gave a mischievous smile, “And you look quite handsome”

He chuckled lightly, and he looked up at the sky, “You want to watch the fireworks?”

“I would love to”

Adam got the sudden desire to grab her hand, but he got distracted by watching her look around the park, and hoping that he would never do anything to erase that smile.

_It can’t get much better than this._

“What are you thinking about?”, she suddenly asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You have that look on your face again”, Thea explained, “That look when you’re seriously contemplating something, but with a little hesitance”

_I’m not going to let hesitance ruin this. Not tonight._

“Your skill at reading people continues to be unparalleled”, he said, moving his hand to gently rest on her shoulder.

She gave a small laugh, “Thanks”

“It is quite true”, he continued, “As much as it has annoyed me sometimes”

“I wouldn’t put much stock in that”, she said, “I think you’re the only person I have trouble reading”

“And why do you think that is?”

“My own feelings”, Thea said, gently moving so their sides were pressed together, “Add that in the mix, and forget about any skill that I had”

She took a deep breath, “But I think I’m okay with that”

He gave her a smile, and he heard the start of fireworks in the distance, which they both turned to face.

“You never told me what you were thinking about”, she said, looking up to his green eyes.

Adam moved to gently curl his hair around his fingers, allowing himself to enjoy its softness.

“This”

With that, he moved his head down to kiss her, and he heard Thea give a small sound of surprise before melting into it, her lips just as soft as it had been the first time.

He had thought that nothing could top the feeling of that first kiss, regardless of how it ended.

He was wrong.

There was something special about this one, it gentle, but full of an explosion of emotions that it made him feel almost dizzy.

_This is everything._

They both eventually broke it off, and he heard Thea whisper, “Adam”, her eyes then going wide as she had not expected to say that.

But he gave her a smile, watching the adoration in her eyes, and wanting it to never disappear.

“I love you”

Adam had not planned to say it, but he hardly cared, and she gave him a smile, and he moved to gently hold her hand.

“I love you too”

As the fireworks started to go off in the background, he moved closer to kiss her again, running his hands through her hair.

_I may not deserve this._

_But I’m glad I have it._

_And I’m never going to let her go._

_The End_ _😊_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're reached the end! I hope you have enjoyed this little series! Thank you all so much for all of the support on this! It is wild to think that some random idea would spark this whole series, but this is something that I really liked writing! Hopefully there will be more of these to come in the future!
> 
> As always, if you ever want to request something from me in the future for any member of Unit Bravo, send me a comment or message me on tumblr @smalltowndetective !
> 
> Again thank you guys so so much, you all are amazing! :)


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